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CQJPXRIGRT DEPOSIT. 



PAST AND PRESENT 
WITH MRS. PIPER 



tCfje $$pc|)tc Series! 

Books approved by recognized au- 
thorities as containing reliable accounts 
of the mysterious phenomena now under 
investigation by the Societies for Psy- 
chical Research, and conjectures regard- 
ing them by qualified students. 

The series will include some of the 
classics of the subject, either taken from 
the Proceedings of the societies or re- 
printed from editions no longer obtain- 
able. 

The following are already arranged 
for. Others are expected. 

The Unseen Doctor with Preface by 
J. Arthur Hill. 

After Death Communications, by L. 
M. Bazett, with Introduction by J. 
Arthur Hill. 

The Ear of Dionysius by The Right 
Hon. G. W. Balfour, with a discussion 
of the Evidence by Miss F. Melian 
Stawell and a reply by Mr. Balfour. 

The Mediumship of Mr. T. by Anna 
de Koven. (Mrs. Reginald de Koven.) 

Memoirs of a Medium by Effie 
Halsey. (" Mrs. Vernon.") 

My Experiences With Mrs. Piper, by 
Anne Manning Robbins, author of Both 
Sides of the Veil. 

Psychic Studies and Sketches by 
Henry Holt. 




Mrs. Piper 



XTbe pggcbic Series 

PAST AND PRESENT 
WITH MRS. PIPER 



BY 

ANNE MANNING ROBBINS 

Author of "Both Sides of the Veil" 




NEW YORK 
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

1922 






Copyright, 1922 

BY 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 



OCT 10 72 

1 Cl A683619 
AM) 1 



PREFACE 

The recent great wave of interest in Psy- 
chical Research has led me to believe that some 
account of my personal intimacy and psychic 
experiences with Mrs. Piper covering the past 
decade would be an acceptable contribution to 
the literature on that subject, and I have 
therefore prepared a brief account of experi- 
ences following those given in my previous 
book " Both Sides of the Veil." When the 
question of publication arose it was thought 
best to incorporate this new matter with that 
published earlier. My former book, however, 
is now some ten years old, and its contents, out- 
side of the records of sittings, are very differ- 
ent from what is called for by the public's edu- 
cation in recent years. Therefore I have re- 
written, with great abbreviation and some 
trifling expansion, the portion of it outside of 
the reports of sittings, presenting it and the 
later experiences in connected form and, so far 
as practicable, in chronological order. 

While I wish always to preserve the attitude 
of an investigator, with eyes not blind to the 

iii 



iv PREFACE 

difficulties of the spiritualistic belief, it has 
seemed advisable to present the facts as they 
appear, with some explanation as to their sig- 
nificance, but not to becloud them by much 
theorizing. Should such presentation imply 
earnestness of conviction on my part, I shall 
not regret it, but I shall be pleased if my simple 
narration offers to others a basis for theory. 

Part II of this volume, comprising my ex- 
periences since my previous book was published, 
is of course entirely new. 

I wish to express my deep appreciation of 
the interest taken in my original notes by Mr. 
Henry Holt, and his valuable advice as to what 
portions of those voluminous records could best 
be omitted. 

April, 1920. 



PART I 

EARLY YEARS IN MRS. PIPER'S 
MEDIUMSHIP 



HIRAM HART, RICHARD HODGSON, 
GENERAL MARTIN, 1885-1908 

My interest in Psychical Research dates from 
the early spring of 1881, and my opportunities 
for it have been in some respects unique. 
Therefore I feel that I ought not to withhold 
that experience from other seekers who may 
care for it. During all this time my daily work 
has been in stenography, and largely in report- 
ing for the authorities of either the city of 
Boston or the State of Massachusetts. This 
occupation has fitted me to give a more exact 
report of my experiences with Mrs. Piper than 
has sometimes been given of the experience of 
others. 

I met her for the first time during the winter 
of 1884-5. One evening I was invited with a 
personal friend to a family gathering of about 
a dozen people, among whom were Mrs. Piper 
and her husband. In the course of the evening 
she retired with one or two of her friends to a 
small room opening into the one in which the 
company was assembled, and, as I understood, 



4 PAST AND PRESENT 

" went under control/' whatever that might 
mean; it was something new and strange to me. 
I think she had not then begun to give sittings 
outside of the immediate family circle, but was 
in the process of developing her powers. I 
heard some one talking in a low tone in the 
small room, and as I remember Mr. Piper told 
me that the poet Longfellow was supposed to 
be speaking through Mrs. Piper, and a little 
later in the evening that " Dr. Phinuit " had 
arrived. 

Dr. Phinuit claimed to have been a French 
physician who passed out of the body twenty- 
five years before. While under the control of 
Phinuit, Mrs. Piper walked out into the large 
room, and the control addressed a few remarks 
to the company in general. I chanced to be 
standing with my companion near Mrs. Piper, 
and Phinuit [as Mrs. P.] put his hand on my 
shoulder and said in his emphatic way, address- 
ing us both, " You are very harmonious." 

This was my introduction to dear old Phinuit 
of those early days. In course of time, despite 
many idiosyncrasies and crudities, he endeared 
himself to all with whom he talked. Some of 
them speak of him to this day in terms of fa- 
miliar affection. 

I lost no time in making an appointment for 
a private interview with Mrs. Piper, and my 



WITH MRS. PIPER 5 

notebook gives April, 1885, as the date of my 
first sitting. This antedates by some months 
William James's acquaintance with her, and it 
was he who introduced her, in May, 1887, to 
Dr. Hodgson. The hour was to me one of 
extreme fascination. Was Dr. Phinuit really a 
discarnate spirit, temporarily and partially in- 
carnated in this woman's body? Whoever he 
was, he understood me. He seemed to know 
all about my good points, and to have a special 
knowledge of my failings; and from that time 
on he sustained the relation of adviser and 
friend. However, in the very earliest days of 
my investigations I laid it down as a working 
principle, not to follow the advice of any psychic 
which was contrary to the dictates of my own 
judgment. 

I did not have frequent sittings with Mrs. 
Piper, but I had a number each year under the 
Phinuit regime up to September, 1895, with the 
exception of one season when Mrs. Piper was 
abroad; then, for various reasons, there was a 
break of several years, and in December, 1899, 
I had my first sitting under the Imperator re- 
gime. 

My first Phinuit sitting, in April, 1885, took 
place about three months after the death of a 
friend by name Hiram Hart. [Not G. P.'s 
Hart. In old reports mine is called " H."] 



6 PAST AND PRESENT 

Dr. Phinuit advised me to wait about eight 
months longer, saying that by that time I should 
probably hear from this friend. I waited, and 
I did hear from him, as it seemed, and I wit- 
nessed the interesting phenomenon of the grad- 
ual development of a new control: for in the 
course of a short time Hiram Hart succeeded 
in controlling the organism almost as well as did 
Phinuit himself, and during all these ten years 
he was my special communicator, though never 
occupying more than a portion of the time at 
any one sitting. [See Pr. S. P. R. XXXIII, 
pp. 289-290.] 

A general account of these early sittings of 
mine is included in " Observations of Certain 
Phenomena of Trance," Pr. S. P. R. XXI, pp. 
111-114. Hiram Hart has been a " friend at 
court " on the Other Side, keeping himself mod- 
estly in the background in later years, but ap- 
pearing for brief moments whenever he could 
serve my interests or send me a message of re- 
membrance. 

Mrs. Piper builded better than she knew 
when she elected to reside at Arlington Heights. 
The place is one of the loveliest of Boston's 
lovely suburbs. For the dweller in the city, like 
myself, it was most restful to take a train in the 
morning at an hour when the tide of humanity 
sets toward the city, thus leaving the suburbs 



WITH MRS. PIPER 7 

quiet; to ascend to the top of the " Heights " 
through an avenue shaded its entire length by 
beautiful trees; to meet Mrs. Piper's serene 
face ; to mount still higher to an upper chamber, 
lock the door, watch the psychic while she 
seemed to lose all consciousness of my presence, 
and then be free to commune with — whom? 

It was in February, 1888, that I first met 
Richard Hodgson at the rooms of the S. P. R. 
at 5 Boylston place, Boston. He had come 
from England early in the preceding year, and 
established himself in the city, acting first as sec- 
retary of the old American Psychical Research 
Society, w T hich in 1890 became the American 
Branch of the English Society, and he repre- 
sented the latter organization for the next fif- 
teen years. From that time on I saw him occa- 
sionally, not frequently. I communicated with 
him oftener than I saw him. I at first offered 
service to the Society in the line of reporting, 
and assisted Dr. Hodgson at times, sometimes 
gratuitously and sometimes being employed by 
him to make verbatim stenographic reports of 
sittings, or copy of records already made. I 
learned his methods, and became familiar with 
the technicalities of his system of keeping rec- 
ords of sittings with notes thereon. 

I find that, as early as March 6, 1888, I re- 



8 PAST AND PRESENT 

ported a Piper sitting for him, which he could 
not attend, and which I think was one in a series 
of sittings carried on by some members of the 
American Society at that time in existence ; and 
in May and June of the same year I attended 
a short series of sittings given by Mrs. Piper 
for the express purpose of allowing Dr. Hodg- 
son to find out what he could in his own way 
about the Phinuit personality. [See Pr. S. P. 
R. XXI, pp. 2-3 and 59.] We three met on 
successive Saturday evenings, Dr. Hodgson giv- 
ing his time and his effort, I giving my report, 
and Mrs. Piper giving her services. This 
series was interrupted after the fifth sitting, but 
those five Saturday evenings were memorable, 
each one of us three entering upon the under- 
taking in the happiest of moods, and each one 
standing by his or her part of the agreement. 
Dr. Hodgson asked questions and tried various 
harmless experiments, or what seemed to him at 
that time harmless, such as putting salt on the 
psychic's tongue when she was in trance, to as- 
certain whether Phinuit was conscious of it in 
the trance, or whether Mrs. Piper was conscious 
of it on coming out of the trance. 

In all probability the very first attempts at 
automatic writing by Mrs. Piper occurred in 
some of my sittings. [See Pr. S. P. R. 
XXXIII, p. 292.] The writing of May 23, 



WITH MRS. PIPER & 

1 89 1, was the first of any length. It was by 
the control Hiram Hart. Distinct messages 
were given, and I was asked to compare the 
writing with his own when in life. I was con- 
vinced of the appearance in it of more than one 
old peculiarity. Dr. Hodgson also made the 
comparison as an expert on handwriting, and 
would not admit that there was any similarity 
worthy of mention between the two styles ex- 
cept in the one capital letter " H." This he 
could not deny was very much like the old style. 
I have only recently discovered in Part 
XXXIII, Pr. S. P. R., p. 399, a discussion by 
Dr. Hodgson of early attempts at writing, and 
a footnote which reads as follows : 

" Miss R. (p. 292), whose friend was apparently 
the first to write at all, using the hand while ' con- 
trolling ' the body generally, and also using the hand 
while Phinuit was controlling the voice, has shown 
me some of this early writing and some writing cf 
her friend when living. Some peculiarities were com- 
mon to both, but not enough to found an argument 
upon as to the identity of the communicator. ,, 

Previous to this date, December 8, 1888, 
Phinuit wrote my name and his name, and 
Hiram Hart wrote his own name. The two 
styles of writing were quite dissimilar. 

I have three words written by the Hart con- 
trol at a still earlier date, on July 2, 1888. 



10 PAST AND PRESENT 

All three of these instances antedate the oc- 
currence of any writing of which I have ever 
seen any account. 

In the winter of 1892-3 came the extremely 
interesting series of sittings arranged by Dr. 
Hodgson for the express purpose of obtaining 
further communications from that remarkable 
personality, George Pelham, who died in the 
preceding February, and made himself known 
to some of his friends within a few weeks after 
his death. The history of the early G. P. com- 
munications, as they are called, is given in detail 
by Dr. Hodgson in Part XXXIII of the S. P. 
R. Proceedings, February, 1898. The sittings 
of this series took place in the evening, when I 
was able to attend as reporter. 

In September, 1895, I had my last conversa- 
tion with Phinuit, though at the time I did not 
know that it was to be my last, or I should have 
felt that I was taking leave of a faithful old 
friend. There was an interval of four years 
during which I had no sittings. Mrs. Piper 
was ill a portion of the time, and was not giving 
sittings, and when she did give them I was not 
knowing to all that was going on in the affairs 
of the trance. I learned later that in the 
course of the year 1897 Phinuit was displaced 
by other controls, and a new regime was es- 
tablished. I thought my connection with the 




Richard Hodgson 
in his fiftieth year 



WITH MRS. PIPER 11 

Piper work had come to an end, whereas the 
truth is that by far the most important part of 
it was to come. 

In the fall of 1899 I resigned my position in 
a city department, and, though free from rou- 
tine work for a period of three months, I occu- 
pied much of that time in making copy of some 
of Dr. Hodgson's very interesting records. 
One day while this work was going on I re- 
ceived a note from Dr. Hodgson saying that I 
might have a sitting. On December 20, 1899, 
I went to the Heights, Dr. Hodgson accom- 
panying me. I was practically introduced on 
that day to the group of personalities on the 
Other Side who have been, as it appears, man- 
aging the communications from that side ever 
since. " Imperator " is supposed to be their 
leader, " Rector " the amanuensis and inter- 
preter, who controls and looks after the organ- 
ism generally w T hile the psychic is entranced, 
"Prudens," " Groeyn," and the " Doctor " 
members, all evidently assumed appellations. 
To this group George Pelham, F. W. H. 
Myers, and one or two others have apparently 
from time to time been added. 

At this first sitting under the new regime, my 
old friend Hiram Hart again appeared. Dr. 
Hodgson left the room temporarily while I 
conversed with my friend. It seems that he 



12 PAST AND PRESENT 

had not progressed out of remembrance of me, 
but the moment there was opportunity he was 
on hand. He asked if I knew that he had been 
calling me for a long time, but seemed to under- 
stand the reasons for my absence. 

The method of communication on this occa- 
sion was by writing. My friend made some of 
his peculiar H's, and when I said: " Hodgson 
doesn't believe in those H's, does he? " he re- 
plied: " I do not know or care; I know I am 
I . . . and that is I am Hiram Hart." 

There were statements made to me at this 
and a second sitting occurring a few weeks 
later, which proved in the light of subsequent 
events to be very important, and to which I 
shall refer later. 

In 1894 Augustus P. Martin was appointed 
to the chairmanship of the board of police of 
Boston, and came to the office where I had al- 
ready served nine years. I had never previ- 
ously met him, though I knew him by reputa- 
tion. He was an ex-mayor of the city. The 
five years of his term of office as head of the 
police department were full of responsible work 
for him, and I was allowed to have my share in 
it as one of his assistants. During those five 
years I seemed to be living under a sort of pa- 
ternalism, different from, anything I had ever 
known. I have heard his occupancy of a public 



WITH MRS. PIPER 13 

chair characterized as " dignity, sweetness and 
light. " But with all his gentleness of manner 
and kindness of heart, his mentality was orig- 
inal and forceful. 

The General — for as such he was popularly 
known — left the police department in the 
spring of 1899, and in the fall of the same year 
I also gave up my position. The association 
seemed to have come to an end, but at the very 
close of this year he was offered another city 
office, that of water commissioner, which he ac- 
cepted, taking up his duties at the beginning of 
1900, and shortly after I was appointed his sec- 
retary, and the old association was renewed. 

My second sitting under the Imperator re- 
gime, which occurred on Jan. 17, 1900, made a 
deep impression upon me. After a few lines of 
script the pencil was dropped from the psychic's 
hand and the voice taken, and for nearly two 
hours conversation was carried on. It was my 
first experience with Rector's use of the voice. 
His style differed so greatly from the familiar 
style of Phinuit, or even from that of Hiram 
Hart, that I realized at once that I was con- 
versing with a different individuality. He was 
dignified, kind and sympathetic. I thought my- 
self a stranger to this group of spirits, but they 
seemed to know me through and through, and 
saw in me capacity which I only half recognized 



14 PAST AND PRESENT 

myself. The period of fourteen years in one 
spot, just then ended, had seemed long and dif- 
ficult to me, yet Imperator now called it " only 
a short school for thee." So brief evidently do 
the decades seem to the discarnate eye which 
takes in the wider span. But the most impor- 
tant statement made to me by Imperator on 
this occasion, in speaking of my again being 
associated with General Martin, was the fol- 
lowing : 

" We see thee and him writing a book to- 
gether." 

I asked: " What about? " 

" It is concerning the natural things in life 
and many different conditions of thy life, which 
will be put together in a form of philosophy. 
// will be so in spite of anything which thou 
may'st think to the contrary." 

Imperator thus seemed to be definitely mark- 
ing out my path for me, and on a later occa- 
sion, when I remarked to him that I did not 
wish to publish a book simply from a sense of 
duty, he replied: 

" Friend, to write a book, it is thy doom or 
duty, one and both combined." 

I did not speak of this particular matter to 
General Martin. I told him, however, that it 
was said we were yet to do some special work 



WITH MRS. PIPER 15 

together. But one day in March, 1 901, he was 
taken ill and obliged to remain at his home. 
He was, however, continued in office, and for 
another entire year it devolved upon me to 
travel back and forth frequently, almost daily, 
between City Hall and his residence in the sub- 
urbs, getting his signature to papers and taking 
back his orders. The hot summer of 1901 
dragged wearily along and the General's spirit 
flagged, and not until Jan. 22 of 1902 did I have 
another sitting, and from that time on I was 
constantly receiving through Dr. Hodgson mes- 
sages from Imperator and Rector and sending 
messages to them. For, although the sick man 
whom all these messages concerned knew almost 
nothing about Imperator and his group, the lat- 
ter apparently took a very great interest in him. 
Notwithstanding all this, and in the face of the 
definite prediction that we were yet to do more 
work together, General Martin passed out of 
the body on March 13, 1902. 

A few days after this occurrence I particu- 
larly instructed Dr. Hodgson not to mention my 
name in any way at the Piper trance. I felt 
that, as matters stood between myself and the 
trance personalities, there had been, to say the 
least, some misunderstanding and confusion, 
and that the only dignified course for me to 



16 PAST AND PRESENT 

pursue was to ask no favors and abide my time. 
I thought this my opportunity, too, to test once 
more the value of what had seemed to be a close 
relation between myself and personalities whom 
I knew only as a part of the Unseen. 

No word or hint came for me during the re- 
mainder of that season, and almost another 
whole season passed when one day, May 21, 
1903, at a sitting of Dr. Hodgson's, in one of 
those significant mutterings of Mrs. Piper when 
coming out of trance, when she seems to be re- 
turning to her body, taking last glimpses of 
people in the spirit whom she designates as 
" white people," while those to whom she is 
returning appear to her " black," she said: 

" General Martin says he is coming here 
pretty soon to speak — Martin — love to — 
this is a pretty dark place after all." 

Nothing more until Dec. 15 of that same 
year, while arrangements were being made for 
future sittings, the following conversation took 
place between Rector and Dr. Hodgson, Rec- 
tor's words being quoted from the automatic 
script, Dr. Hodgson's being enclosed in the 
round brackets : — 

" There is a spirit here who calls constantly 
for a lady in the body whom he refers to as — " 

[Hand enquires of Spirit?] 

"Robbins." 

(Yes. She will doubtless be rejoiced to 



WITH MRS. PIPER 17 

come. She said long ago that she was wait- 
ing for anything that came.) 

11 This is Imperator's arrangement for the 
spirit who spake unto Him to give him relief/' 

(Yes.) 

11 Imperator hath referred to it several times 
and called our attention to it but He hath not 
really commanded us until now, as He hath 
been assisting the spirit." 

II Wilt thou attend to this friend on the 
earthly side and appoint for a meeting with us 
on the third after coming? " 

(Yes, I will.) 

[" Third after coming " means the third day 
after the coming Sabbath.] 

A sitting was then arranged for me, to take 
place on Dec. 23d, about twenty-one months 
after General Martin's passing out. Behold, 
my old friend, business associate and employer 
appears, communicates as clearly and strongly 
as if he had had many previous opportunities, 
instead of having had none, and at this very 
first opportunity says: 

" I want to know if you don't think we could 
manage to write a book? " 

And later, on the same occasion: 

II I have had this on my mind ever since I 
came into this world, and I .would like to have 
it carried out," 



18 PAST AND PRESENT 

Still later: 

" It has got to be. It is a thing that I am 
bound to have." 

I ask: 

(You mean that you are bound I shall pub- 
lish a book?) 

The reply came : 

" Literally, absolutely, out and out, with pen, 
paper and ink, write a book and publish it, and 
I am going to be the inspirer and instigator of 
it, and we are going to write that book together 
just as sure as you live." 

Was it then true that the line of work 
marked out four years previously was after all 
to be pursued? Surely nothing had occurred 
in the meantime to prevent such collaboration 
except — death ! 

My sittings with Mrs. Piper continued from 
that time on, taking place, however, rarely. I 
was directed from the beginning to withhold 
some of my communications from Dr. Hodg- 
son, although I gave him the greater part of 
them. He did not always understand why the 
controls assigned a certain day to me in prefer- 
ence to some one else who could give more sub- 
stantial aid to the investigations that were being 
carried on in the name of science, or some one 
who, perhaps, received better communications 
and more evidential matter than my own. But 



WITH MRS. PIPER 10 

he came in time to obey implicitly the wishes of 
the trance personalities in making arrangements 
for the different sitters, and I am told that he 
was heard to remark in his emphatic way, in 
regard to an appointment for me : " // they 
wish it, so it shall be! y 

On December i, 1905, the many friends of 
Dr. Hodgson were astounded at seeing in the 
morning papers the announcement of his sudden 
death, which occurred the preceding evening 
while he was playing handball at his boat club : 
for up to this time he was thought to have been 
in almost perfect physical condition. 

The day of his death happened to be my op- 
portunity at Arlington Heights. I had a sit- 
ting in the morning, and he died in the very 
early evening of the same day. No hint of 
what was to take place reached me from the 
Other Side. Mrs. Piper was much shocked by 
the occurrence. I spent an hour at her bed- 
side on the evening of the day after the death, 
and she related to me a most interesting dream 
which she had had the preceding night. It 
was, in brief, as follows: 

She seemed to be approaching a large dark 
tunnel. At its entrance, appearing from the 
inside, stood a man who waved his hand at her 
with a motion which seemed to say: " Keep 
back, do not enter this tunnel." She related 



20 PAST AND PRESENT 

her dream early the next morning to members 
of her family, remarking as she did so that the 
hand looked like Dr. Hodgson's and its peculiar 
motion was like his. It was not until after she 
had told her dream that the morning paper con- 
taining the news of the death was laid upon her 
bed. 

I immediately interpreted the dream to sig- 
nify that Dr. Hodgson's first thought on find- 
ing himself in the other world was to impress 
upon Mrs. Piper that her work was not yet 
finished, even though his guidance of it had 
come to an end. This interpretation certainly 
harmonizes with a message which, later in that 
winter, at one of my own sittings, purported to 
come for Mrs. Piper from Dr. Hodgson him- 
self. He said: 

" Will you give my love to Mrs. Piper and 
tell her that I wish her to cling to the rigging, 
and tell her to go on unceasingly, untiringly, and 
everything will win out." 

During the winter of 1906-7 Mrs. Piper was 
in England, giving sittings under the auspices of 
the Society. The winter of 1907-8 she spent 
in Boston, and I was called early in the season 
for a sitting. 

I do not think that the mental attitude to- 
ward the Imperator Group which Dr. Hodg- 
son finally came to hold, was generally known 



WITH MRS. PIPER 21 

among his acquaintances until after his death. 
This attitude was clearly and beautifully ex- 
pressed in two letters addressed to me in the 
latter part of 1901, the originals of which I 
still have. After his death these letters were 
circulated among his friends. Even William 
James, referring to them in a note addressed to 
me on March 22, 1906, said: " I confess that 
I never knew his religious attitude toward the 
Imperator-Band to be so complete. " 

Those interested are referred to a memorial 
of Richard Hodgson by Dr. James H. Hyslop, 
Am. S. P. R. Journal, Vol. I, January, 1907; 
and to memorials by Mrs. Henry Sidgwick and 
J. G. Piddington, Pr. S. P. R. LII, Vol. XIX, 
February, 1907. 



II 



VOICE COMMUNICATIONS FROM 
GENERAL MARTIN 

EXTRACTS FROM REPORTS OF 
SITTINGS, 1903-1908 

It should be understood that after the close 
of the Phinuit regime nearly all the communi- 
cations coming through Mrs. Piper were in 
automatic writing while she was in deep trance, 
generally with her head on pillows, turned away 
from the hand which held the pencil. It was 
only at an occasional sitting, or for certain sit- 
ters, that the communications came through 
the voice. Many prefer the automatic writing, 
and for scientific investigation it is considered, 
I understand, more valuable. The writing can 
be preserved and the communication cannot be 
disputed. 

However, the writing itself is not by any 
means the whole story, and in order that it be 
perfectly intelligible, all questions and remarks 
interjected by the sitter must also be accurately 
recorded. Nor is this all. The story is not 
then complete unless one knows how to make 

22 



WITH MRS. PIPER 23 

notes of and interpret more or less correctly the 
various and significant gestures of the hand, 
which appears to be sensitive and alive, as if an 
actual intelligence were seated in it. 

I have a great mass of communications and 
can only publish extracts. I have decided that 
it is best to confine the extracts for this period 
almost entirely to one personality, giving the 
talk, which in a voice sitting has much fewer 
breaks than occur in writing. 

When scientists first undertook the study of 
mediumistic phenomena, the particular test was 
considered the all-important thing, and com- 
paratively little attention was paid to anything 
else. More recently, voluminous and charac- 
teristic talk on the part of a communicator has 
been considered valuable and even evidential In 
its way. Professor Hyslop in his Science and 
a Future Life [p. 269] says: "What we 
must have is psychological phenomena, and psy- 
chological phenomena of that kind which rep- 
resents the svstematic mental action natural to 
the person whose existence is in question." 

I am not offering my communications as 
11 evidence " in the strictest sense of that word. 
I am offering them simply for what they are, 
leaving it to the reader to judge them as he 
will. 



24 PAST AND PRESENT 

Omissions of single words or brief phrases, 
which do not in the least affect the sense, I have 
not indicated. Some personal references must 
be omitted in any case, and such omissions are 
indicated by dotted lines. All remarks en- 
closed in round brackets are my own, those in 
square brackets are not a part of the sitting but 
simply my explanatory notes, and the remainder 
of the record represents what is said by the com- 
municating spirit. 

The language of Imperator and Rector, as 
reported here and elsewhere, contains some pas- 
sages whose grammar, and some other features, 
are not up to the exalted character claimed by 
them. It is not for me at this point to attempt 
to account for this apparent failing, but I wish 
to say most emphatically that my reports are 
correct. Whatever may be thought of these 
expressions, they are not to be attributed to 
carelessness in reporting. 

Scientific laws are simply statements of truths 
that are found to be general, and each reporter 
and commentator should call attention to what- 
ever matter in the reports in hand is found to 
characterize reports in general. I give infor- 
mally some such points. Moreover, such uni- 
formities as can be found have the benefit of a 
cloud of witnesses. 

Mr. Henry Holt, in reading these communi- 



WITH MRS. PIPER 25 

cations to-day, has written me certain observa- 
tions which I am glad to introduce here : for I 
am sure that they will lend an added interest to 
the passages referred to, and, while I am fully 
in accord with them, I prefer that they be attrib- 
uted to him. He says : 

11 In these reports, as in most mediumistic 
communications, the descriptions of heaven gen- 
erally correspond with the ideas that were held 
by the communicator on earth. As has been 
more than once suggested, these peculiarities 
should not necessarily be held to invalidate the 
reports, but rather to indicate that each eman- 
cipated soul finds, within limits, a heaven to suit 
itself. 

11 Here, too, occur some of the frequent 
statements that there, to desire anything is to 
realize it. Apparently what one wants, assum- 
ing tlve desire to be a worthy one, is at once sup- 
plied, the mind itself apparently realizing its 
desires without external aid. 

11 It is interesting, too, to note the repetition 
of the general testimony that the spirits best 
developed on earth fall into the new conditions 
most readily. 

4 It is also interesting to note here, what has 
often been found in other reports, that the com- 
municators claim that the emancipated souls 
understand each other without words — that 



26 PAST AND PRESENT 

our imperfect telepathy here becomes perfected 
in the next state. 

" The individual opinions of mediums or of 
sitters regarding metempsychosis seem to crop 
up frequently: for the alleged testimony of com- 
municators regarding it is conflicting. The 
communication from General Martin, on pages 
94-5, is one of the most rational that has yet 
appeared on that subject. 

" The statement on pages 96-7 regarding age 
and growth is supported by many similar state- 
ments from other communicators; also the one, 
on page 100, regarding the danger, or possible 
detriment, to the spirit, of too frequent com- 
munication, notably in Mrs. Hester Travers- 
Smith's Voices from the Void. 

" The authority of Imperator and his com- 
panions, on pages no and 116, conforms with 
authorities through sundry other psychics. 

" The apparent blending of General Martin 
and Hodgson, on page 125, commented upon 
by the author there and on the following pages, 
is extremely interesting: for it seems to illus- 
trate a phenomenon frequently noticed, of the 
blending of minds, most frequently noticed per- 
haps between sitter, medium and communicator. 
With this, compare what has been said of the 
telepathy superior to other communication on 
the next plane." 




Augustus P. Martin 

IN HIS FIFTIETH YEAR 



EXTRACTS FROM REPORTS OF 
SITTINGS 

SITTING OF DECEMBER 23, 1903 

Rector controlling 

Art thou here? Art thou present? 

(I am.) 

In God's holy name we greet thee this day 
and this hour. We sent for thee to return 
to us that we might make all clear to thee, 
bring messages from those who seek thee on 
our side and teach thee the divine and holy 
will of God. Hearest thou me? 

(I do. I am glad I have not been dropped 
from the fold.) 

Dropped, friend? Not one lamb who 
cometh unto us, who seeketh us in the highest, 
who have faith in God, will depart from us 
or will we allow them to drift from the fold 
unprotected or unguided. Thy friends on this 
side hath sought thee often. 

(Friend?) 

Friends. They have sought thee, they have 

27 



28 PAST AND PRESENT 

called us to seek thee, to find thee out, to bring 
thee unto us and unto them. Hearest thou 
me? 

(Yes.) 

Friend, oh those of little faith know not 
the workings of the Allwise. ... I am Rector, 
servant of God. I bring to thee first thy 
friend known as Hiram. 

[My old friend of early sittings, who passed 
away in 1885, known in old reports as " H." 
There was some talk here which I understood 
to be by Hiram Hart, but, while in the earlier 
years he talked very naturally, his style being 
very unlike that of Rector, at this time the two 
personalities were so much alike that I could 
not clearly distinguish when one left off speak- 
ing and the other began. It appeared later, 
however, that Rector brought Hiram Hart, 
and the latter came to introduce the friend who 
had never before made his appearance. For he 
said:] 

I am bringing another friend who seeks you, 
who knows you as you are. He would speak 
also, but the awakening of his soul was the 
most remarkable I have ever known. I sought 
him and found him. He sought me. We 
found each other. We are together. We 
clasp hands, we are friends. 

(Yes.) 



WITH MRS. PIPER 29 

They call him on our side " General." 

(I see.) 

I know not his other name so well, but he 
is known by this and we call him this, and he 
is happy but longs to meet you. Do you hear? 

(Yes.) 

• ••••• 

Now here comes the General. Will you 
speak to him? 

(Oh, I should be delighted.) 

[What immediately follows I understood to 
be the first words that came from the later ac- 
quaintance, who passed out about twenty-one 
months previous to date of this sitting.] 

The General 

I want to see you. I want everything to 
be understood between us, and until it is I do 
not feel satisfied. Can't you help me? Can't 
you see the obstacles in my way? 

[A few brief phrases only omitted here.] 

Can't you see that God's will was better? 
Oh, you are not so weak as I thought in your 
belief. Why didn't I know better? Well, 
because I was grappling with the world. That 
is it. 

(Is this Hiram talking, or is he talking for 
the General?) 

No, he is talking for the General. He is 



30 PAST AND PRESENT 

quoting the General's words. You remember 
the little poem, 

Tell me, ye winged winds 

That round my pathway roar, 
Do ye not know some spot — 

[Words not all correctly caught here, but 
these are the first lines of the verse he was try- 
ing to quote.] 

You remember that? 

(Yes.) 

You remember, 

Some lone and pleasant dell, 

Some valley in the West, 
Where free from toil and pain, 

The weary soul may rest? 

(General, you used to repeat a lot of poetry, 
didn't you?) 

Oh, I forgot, — yes, I did. I have found 
that peace, that rest, the beautiful awakening 
of the spirit. 

• ••••• 

I have longed for a talk with you, but I did 
not understand the conditions. 

(Yes, I have been only waiting patiently for 
you to come.) 

You have called for me in your spirit. I 
knew it and felt it, but I could not reach down 



WITH MRS. PIPER 31 

until the conditions were arranged for it. Do 
you know what they all mean? Perhaps you 
know better than I do. But these good priests 
[who] opened the way, who showed me the 
Light, opened the door for me and here I am. 
Would to God you could see me as I am! I 
am quite the man that I was, only my ideas 
are all changed. They are more now I think 
in harmony with your own. . . . Oh, it is beau- 
tiful, it is ideal, just over the river, lift the Veil 
and you know all. Tell me something of your- 
self. 

• ••••• 

But oh, why was I so blind? It was be- 
cause of the thickness, the thickness of the 
flesh. 

(General, do you know what I am doing?) 

Yes, I know it well. Do you mean the na- 
ture of the work, or the private work? 

(I mean this minute.) 

This present minute? 

(Yes.) 

Why, aren't you registering something? 

(Yes.) 

I can see your hand move and I can see your 
spirit, too, so plainly, and the spiritual hand 
guides the material hand, and it seems as 
though it was registering something. Is it 
what I am saying? 



32 PAST AND PRESENT 

(Yes.) 

Well, that is natural. 

(Well, I guess so.) 

That is natural, and how rapidly you worked 
with that for me. I shall never forget those 
days. 

[This of course refers to the eight years of 
association in public office, and especially to the 
first five, when I reported hearings, confer- 
ences, etc., at which he presided, and also wrote 
much at his dictation.] 

And do you remember the last time I satv 
you in the body? 

(Yes.) 

You remember what you said to me? Do 
you remember saying " I think you are getting 
better? " 

(I think I said that, that time.) 

[I said this many times to him during his 
illness, and probably said it the last time I saw 
him.] 

Yes, you did. You were so hopeful and you 
helped me so much, but I could not tell you 
all I felt. Do you hear? 

(Yes.) 

[It was generally understood among those 
who were near him that my hope for his re- 
covery was stronger than that of any one else, 
though no one else knew the ground for my 



WITH MRS. PIPER 33 

hope. Strong prophetic statements had been 
made to me, regarding future work, etc., which 
involved his life, and which, it seemed to me 
then, could not possibly reach their fulfilment 
if he died.] 

• ••••• 

Can't you speak to me and tell me some- 
thing of yourself? 

(I will speak slowly so that I can register 

it.) 

[" Register " is a term used from the Other 
Side, which I adopted.] 

All right. Do you remember coming to me 
and telling me about your belief, and do you 
remember I said I would like to accept it, but 
I did not know, I did not understand? 

(I knew that was the way you felt.) 

But I felt that all through. I could not 
understand it. I do now. What fools we 
are ! But those few who seek light, and light 
is given them, are blest, aren't they? 

(General, do you remember the very last 
words that you said to me?) 

The last words that I said were — I think 
I said — didn't I say I should see you again 
and ask you to come out? 

[" To come out " is exactly the right ex- 
pression. His home was in the suburbs of 
Boston, about six miles from the center.] 



34 PAST AND PRESENT 

(Well, you expected me out the next day.) 

Oh, I said good-by to you. I said " good-by, 
come to-morrow," " I shall see you to-morrow," 
or something — I can't remember the exact 
words, but that is the idea. What were they? 

(The very last words that you said were 
" good night." You said that just as [nat- 
urally] as though you were perfectly well.) 

Yes, I remember saying good-by to you. I 
remember thinking, looking forward to see you 
again. Then what was the next thing? Then 
I passed over — 

(Yes.) 

— between that time and the time you — 
did not come again. Tell me a little about that. 
That may help me to come. 

(Do you remember you used to sit in a 
chair?) 

Oh, yes. I remember one thing, I remem- 
ber sitting with a blanket over my knees, over 
my body. 

[He sat that way nearly all the time day and 
night for a year, not being able to lie down dur- 
ing the greater part of his illness, and he was 
rarely without a blanket over his knees, even in 
the warmest weather.] 

[There is a little further talk here about the 
conditions of his illness.] 

(General, do you remember — ) 



WITH MRS. PIPER 35 

How far away are you now from here? 
You seem quite a little distance away. 

[I had not been quite close to the psychic. 
I moved a little nearer and put my hand on 
her shoulder.] 

(My hand is on the medium's shoulder.) 

I suppose it is because the flesh divides us. 

(Do you remember that I used to bring mes- 
sages through this same channel?) 

Oh, I remember there was a friend of yours, 
a lady in the body — now who was she? I 
can't think what her name was, but she lived 
somewhere in some other town, and you used 
to go and see her and then come and bring 
me messages from the priests who are helping 
me now. But I can't remember who she was, 
but I remember the messages perfectly, the 
nature of the messages, and they really helped 
me. They gave me great encouragement, and 
that is all I needed, was encouragement, until 
time helped me over. 

[Arlington Heights, where Mrs. Piper then 
lived, is about eight miles from Boston center 
in an opposite direction from where his home 
was.] 

What was you going to say about the mes- 
sages? Oh I wish you knew how I felt, how 
light I am, how I can see, how I can read and 
how I can move about, how free I am from 



36 PAST AND PRESENT 

encumbrance, how clear my mind is, how really 
supremely happy I am. You would be de- 
lighted for my sake. 

(I never wanted to call you back.) 

Good! You knew too well how I suffered. 
But tell me about the children. I would like 
to know a little something about the chidren. 

[There is quite a little conversation here 
about members of his own family about whom 
he seemed eager to hear, and he asked if I 
had been out to his home since he passed 
away.] 

[About six months after the General died 
a grandson about two years of age, who was 
named for him, passed away. Another grand- 
son was born on Dec. 16, 1903, just a week 
previous to date of the present sitting. I knew 
only of the fact, did not know what the child 
was named, or whether it was named at all. 
But in giving him information about the family 
into which this child was born, I say, referring 
to the father of the child:] 

(And he has got a new baby. Did you 
know that?) 

Yes, the little one I knew about. ... It 
is just the little details of the material life 
which I cannot grasp and [in] which I long 
to have you help me, but the actual life, and 
the actual life of the children, and all that, 



WITH MRS. PIPER 37 

is well known to me, but the details of the 
material life I cannot see. 

(Do you remember little Augustus?) 

Oh, yes. Tell me about him. 

(Do you know where he is?) 

Well, I know about the little one that came 
over. I know him. He is with me and we 
are very happy together. But didn't he name 
the other — 

(I don't know what he has named him yet.) 

Hasn't he called him Augustus? He has, 
I am sure, one of the two names. But his 
first one is with me. 

(Now I don't know whether he has named 
him Augustus or not — ) 

Well, he has. 

( — so that will be a good test for me.) 

That is one of his names. 

(I will find out about it.) 

And some time you can speak with me about 
it, but meanwhile I know it is true. But the 
little fellow followed me very soon, didn't he? 

(Yes.) 

I knew, and I was so glad to have him come, 
and he is better off here, much better off. In 
fact, it is all right. I have no words of com- 
plaint to offer. 

[I ascertained afterwards that the new baby 
was named William Everett, but his mother 



38 PAST AND PRESENT 

told me that they called him Augustus nearly 
all the time. He seemed to take the place of 
the little Augustus whom they lost.] 

• •«••• 

Are you getting along all right in the world? 

[I do not reply immediately.] 

(You know I want to take this all down, 
and that is why I am a little slow.) 

Oh, I see. Well, don't hurry. There is 
no hurry in this world. I see a light burn- 
ing, and at the end of that light I am talking, 
and when the light begins to go out, of course 
I must go. That is, I can't talk with you, 
but I shall be with you just the same and you 
will be conscious of it. Are you getting along 
as well as when I was with you? 

(Oh, about as well.) 

Do you have to work hard? 

(Well, I have to work every day.) 

But not any harder? 

(No.) 

I am glad. I would like to see you a little 
free for a few hours in what we used to call 
day, and have a little leisure for rest and read- 
ing up on subjects concerning the advancements 
of a higher life, and it would be so much bet- 
ter if you could, so much more helpful. And 
yet the body has to be fed, I know. It has 
to be clothed. I know that and don't forget 



WITH MRS. PIPER 39 

those things in my experience, but still there is 
a great deal beside that. That is nothing, that 
is only the covering. 

(Well, I have been told that I should be 
free some time, but I do not see much prospect 
of it now.) 

Yes, I do. I see all round you light, which 
indicates more rest, less hard work, and that 
is the reason why I spoke to you, — if it was 
not very near you. It must be, I can see it so 
plainly. 

Will you tell me now if you are really hav- 
ing any rest? 

(A little in the evening, that is all.) 

Work all day? 

(Yes.) 

Isn't it daytime with you now? 

(I got off. I got excused.) 

But that is something new for you. 

(Well, I managed it.) 

I mean, it isn't a thing that you — you used 
to stick pretty well. 

(I would not get off for anything but you, 
to come and see you. I would give up every- 
thing for that.) 

Oh, yes. Are you really physically well? 

(I am quite well, and trying to be very well.) 

[I mention some slight physical ailment] 



40 PAST AND PRESENT 

Well, don't you know you must be out in 
the air a great deal? You must go what we 
used to call walking, and be out in the air a 
great deal, too. You can get out. Don't con- 
fine yourself to the four walls of your room. 
Now that is my advice. Can't you go up to 
the library? You remember the library. Go 
up there and get a little reading matter. Take 
the walk to and fro. Go back and read a lit- 
tle, take in a little study. That will help us 
in the work and that is all you need to do. 
Eat slowly. Don't hurry so. Take plenty of 
time and be careful what you do eat. That is 
my advice to you. I am a little weak just now 
and my thoughts begin to tremble. 

(Are you speaking through the medium, or 
is Hiram interpreting for you now?) 

Hiram is doing it for me. I could not take 
possession of the medium yet. 

(Can you do it some time?) 

Yes, but not just now. I am trying to un- 
derstand the laws and the workings of the 
machine, and they put me up here so I could 
see. Just like a schoolboy being sent to the 
board to figure out a multiplication table. I 
am set up here, I am held here, and there are 
three clergymen, one behind me and one on 
either side of me, holding me up here and tell- 
ing me to talk, and I am talking to Hiram, 



WITH MRS. PIPER 41 

and Hiram is repeating it after me, and I am 
trying to do a sum in geometry. That is just 
what I am trying to do. And since I am not 
fully equipped in that problem perhaps you can 
understand something of the difficulty. 

(I think you are doing wonderfully well.) 
But I can hear you, and so long as I can 
hear you and get my thoughts over the line 
clear, that is all I want. 

(General, as far as I have heard, you have 
done wonderfully well for the first time.) 

They have been preparing me for months 
and months to make me understand it. They 
have put me up here and taken me away again. 
They have held me up and showed me the 
Light, and said, " do this and do that, and see 
this and see that," and shown me the details, 
and the ins and outs and the whys and where- 
fores, and why shouldn't I learn something 
after having it hammered into me all that 
time. Then I said, well, I must reach her. 
It is an utter impossibility for me to [let go?] 
until I do. [I will] move heaven and earth, 
but I must reach her. And they said: 
11 Wait, you have got to learn. You must go 
here with us, you must stand on this side, hold 
up your hands, bow your head, speak in this 
kind of a way, speak slowly, articulate dis- 
tinctly," — but without the preparation there 



42 PAST AND PRESENT 

is a good deal of confusion. But they are 
very, very good to me, and they know — what 
they don't know about the details of this Light 
is not worth knowing, I assure you that, if you 
can grasp me. With your clear mind you can 
grasp it pretty well, I think. 

[There is some talk about the private work 
and he expresses himself very emphatically.] 

(General, you are just as positive as you used 
to be, aren't you?) 

[The psychic seemed to smile.] 

Perhaps you would not recognize me if I 
was not. Well, I have retained my individ- 
uality, thank God. Do you know where Po- 
land is, Poland [hesitating only a moment] 
Springs? 

(Oh, I guess I do.) 

Do you remember about it? 

(Yes, indeed.) 

Well, I don't think anybody except our- 
selves — 

(Why, they know where it is, of course.) 

But I mean I had an interest in it. I mean 
I loved it. 

(I know you loved it much.) 

You might go there some time. You know 
it came into my mind as soon as could be. 

[The place where the famous Poland Spring 
is located is the one spot on earth that he 



WITH MRS. PIPER 43 

loved. He was born about three miles from 
the hill on which the large hotel now stands. 
He was always supplied with the water and 
thought it the finest water in the world. There 
was no thought of the place in my mind when 
he made reference to it.] 

Here is little Augustus. Don't you see him? 
(Is he here?) 

Yes, as happy as a bee, just as busy. He is 
a dear little fellow. 

(Give him my love if he understands it.) 

Well, I will. He will be glad to have it. 
Do you remember rubbing my arms? 

(Yes.) 

Well, they don't need rubbing any more, 
thank God. 

Now before I get too weak — you know 
this is quite an effort for me for the first time 
— before my thoughts begin to wander, have 
you got any especial question you wish to ask 
me about my life, about anything — 

(Well, General, I want you to try and think 
up some of the details of the last moments, or 
rather, after you passed out, the first few 
days.) 

[I referred to details of what happened with 
me, or at his home, but my question is not 
clear.] 

I know what it was. When I first passed 



44 PAST AND PRESENT 

out my mind was cloudy, rather confused. I 
felt as though I was going into space, did not 
know where, drifting as it were, for a few 
hours — that was all — and then I felt as 
though there was a strong hand grasped me 
and said to me: "It is all right, it is all 
over." And I said: " What is over?" I 
could not seem to understand what it all meant, 
and after a little while, perhaps an hour, pos- 
sibly an hour or two, I saw oh such a light! 
You cannot imagine it, cannot conceive what it 
is like. It is the most brilliant and yet the 
softest moonlight that you ever saw, and I 
thought, what a beautiful light it was ! And 
all of a sudden I saw people moving about. I 
saw their heads, their figures. Then they 
seemed all clad in white, and I could not seem 
to make them out. They were moving in the 
air. 

And I said: " What is this place? Where 
am I? What am I? What has happened? " 
It was all such a puzzle to me. When I get 
strong I will tell you about it. I can't tell you 
any more. Now what you want me to do, 
think over the few days — 

(Before I come again, I mean.) 

— and when I come back, to tell you what 
my experience was. I tell you one thing, the 
clergyman who is talking for me now was the 



WITH MRS. PIPER 45 

best friend I ever had, and he said: " Come 
along, it is all right, I will show you the way; 
it is all right, you will get over this confusion 
in a minute, and I will help you." And I said: 
" Who are you? What are you? What are 
you here for? Where am I? Where am I 
going? What am I doing? What does all 
this mean? " He said: " Never mind, it will 
all be clear to you In a few minutes. Just wait 
patiently and come with me." And he stood 
ready to welcome me. 

(Well, who was he?) 

Well, his name is Hart. 

(Oh!) 

He says: "I know who you know, you 
know who I know, now we will be friends to- 
gether, and this is all right; I have had ex- 
perience and I know, and I will explain it to 
you in a few minutes." I thought I saw the 
doctor bending over me and I wanted him to 
get away. He seemed to be in my way as I 
was going out. I wanted to get away from 
him, and all of a sudden I was going through 
this misty, cloudy way, and then I went past 
[possibly " fast," word not caught] until I 
got to this light, and it was like going up, up, 
up in the air, in a balloon as it were. You 
could not conceive of anything more strange 
and beautiful, in a sense — the confusion was 



46 PAST AND PRESENT 

not so beautiful, but because it was so I could 
not seem to retain my consciousness and could 
not seem to be released from the burden that 
hung over me, and all of a sudden, the moment 
I realized that this hand was on my arm, then 
I began to see clearly; and from that moment 
I have been advancing and going on, and I 
have seen everybody I ever knew, and I have 
had the happiest time you could imagine. I 
have a mansion all my own and live in it just 
the same as you live in your place there, just 
the same. I have walls, I have pictures, I 
have music, I have books, I have poetry, I 
have everything. 

(I see.) 

It is not a facsimile of that life, but that life 
is a miserable shadow of what this really is, 
and when I get strong, as I become stronger, 
and, — that is, more accustomed to using this 
line, I can tell you more clearly about it. 

Well, it has been, oh, I can't tell you what 
it means to me to see you. I can't tell you 
how you have cleared my mind. I can't tell 
you what you have done for me. Now I am 
going to repay it all back by turning and work- 
ing for you. 

[It was early morning when the General 
died. His doctor was not present. Two of 
his sons were present and must have been bend- 



WITH MRS. PIPER 47 

ing over him, for as they were helping him 
back into his chair which he had left for a few 
moments his strength gave way entirely and he 
passed out shortly after. 

Hiram Hart was not a clergyman in this 
life, but he came in time to be spoken of at the 
sittings as such and I was told that he had be- 
come one. Although he passed out nine years 
before I became acquainted with the General, 
he seems to have been the latter' s guide through 
the misty passage that separates the two 
worlds.] 

• •••*• 

I think I shall have to go. How long have 
I been here? 

(Nearly an hour.) 

An hour in the earthly world? Well, I don't 
know how long that is, but I am too weak to 
remain; that is, I am afraid I can't use this 
Light any more. 

[A few words of farewell. Then, in a most 
natural, persuasive tone, as if addressing a 
child:] 

Come, Augustus, you come with me, dear, 
and we will go and find some play toys. We 
will have a good time together. Come with 
grandpa, come along. 

[Then as if addressing me:] 

He is going. 



48 PAST AND PRESENT 

Rector returns 

It is I, Rector . 

(I am glad to see you, Rector.) 

I have returned, friend, because our Leader 
said to me to keep the passageway clear and 
keep all right. Friend, all is right in thy 
world with us this day. Thou hast good con- 
ditions for us. Art thou aware of it? 

(I am glad to know that.) 

[I had a long talk with Rector, during which 
I asked:] 

(Is the General coming here much through 
this medium?) 

At times he is. He is a marvelous person- 
ality and he has a very clear mind, and he has 
a very earnest desire to work for God and 
humanity. 

[It must be remembered that the spirit known 
as " Rector," the so-called " control, " always 
appears at the opening of a sitting and again 
at its close. Sometimes there are long conver- 
sations with him, much spiritual advice is given, 
and quite often messages for other persons are 
received by the sitter, or messages from other 
persons are delivered by the sitter to the trance 
personalities.] 

Close 



WITH MRS. PIPER 49 

SITTING OF MAY 24, I9O4 

[Soon after the opening of this sitting Rec- 
tor introduced to me a personality purporting 
to be a physician, who held a long conversa- 
tion with me in regard to my health. He told 
me that he formerly lived in Boston, that he 
was in Paris when he passed out, that he had 
been gone possibly a year or two. I after- 
wards ascertained that a physician by the name 
given, one with which I was not familiar, had 
lived on Beacon St., Boston, and died in Paris 
early in the preceding September. This ex- 
plains reference to " the doctor " in opening 
remarks below.] 

The General 

[Psychic coughing.] 

Well, I wonder if there is anybody wishes 
to see me ! 

(Hiram?) 

No, my name is Martin. I want to see Miss 
Robbins. Is she present? 

(Is this you, General?) 

It is ... I am delighted to see you, that 
goes without saying. Well, how are you? 

(Oh, I am pretty well.) 

You look splendidly. I saw the doctor, I 
met him. As I came in he was just going out. 



50 PAST AND PRESENT 

By the way, I want to give you a bit of advice. 
Whatever you do in that world, don't overdo. 
You know I was a great one to preach. 
(Well, no, I don't think you were.) 
Well, that makes me laugh. You know I 
don't think I did preach very much, but I am 
going to preach now. I am going to tell you 
to take care of yourself and the Lord will take 
care of you. What are you doing? 

(Now I want to take down every word that 
you say and what I say.) 

Well, you can do it, you are equal to it. I 
will try to be as slow as I can. Well, are you 
pretty well? 

(Yes, pretty well, I am going to be better.) 
You want to get some of these friends over 
here after you. I have been studying into this 
thing, studying the laws of our nature — that 
is, its problems on our side — and I am per- 
fectly delighted with the' conditions. I am 
perfectly delighted with the thought of return- 
ing. I seek you out and follow you night and 
day. I am often standing by your side when 
you don't realize it, and I stand there and 
laugh at myself to see how utterly unconcerned 
you are in regard to my presence, but I say but 
if her spiritual eyes could open and she could 
see me as I am I know she would be delighted. 
By the way, haven't you a sister? 



WITH MRS. PIPER 51 

(Yes.) 

She has just passed through some sorrow in 
the earthly world? 

(Yes.) 

What has been her sorrow, her loss, has 
been somebody else's gain. Because she had, 
well, I think it is a husband — . . . 

[I have a sister whose husband passed out 
in the early part of this year, only a few 
months previously. I have other sisters, but 
do not live with any of them. This particular 
sister had just been spending some months with 
me. My communicator had met her once or 
twice only in life, and was not at all well ac- 
quainted.] 

[I think I asked at this point if he was talk- 
ing through Rector, my question not being re- 
corded.] 

Oh, Rector is holding the Light. I could 
not, they would not allow me to do that. Not 
quite now, but I may be able to later. But 
they have to support the Light, some friend 
has to look after it. 

(Do you want me to tell you a few things, 
just the same as if you were here?) 

Just the same. How is Everett, by th 
way? 

[Everett is one of his sons, now living.] 

(Everett is well. I saw him a few days 



52 PAST AND PliESENT 

ago and took supper with him and his fam- 
ily-) 

[Interrupting] 

I know it. I know about the children. 
You know there is a little one over here. We 
are very friendly with each other, and just as 
near to each other as we ever could be. 

[There is more talk about his son, and I 
ask:] 

(When do you think it would be well to send 
a message to him?) 

I think it would be perfectly safe to do it, 
— well, we will say in a few months. 

[Further talk on same line] 

Don't you remember the talks we used to 
have together about this thing? And then I 
was a little skeptical, I could not seem to take 
it in. But I have taken it in to my satisfac- 
tion. 

[I relate to him a story of something that 
transpired during his last illness, of which he 
was entirely ignorant, something which involved 
a reference to a number of his old friends, 
most of them well known public men.] 

(Do you think you would remember any of 
the names if I should mention them?) 

I think I should. Many names have gone 
from me, naturally, and new ones have come 
up to me. Names of places, names of people 



WITH MRS. PIPER 53 

whom I knew in the mortal world, have gone 
from me to a certain extent, and as I go on 
they go still farther from me, but I shall never 
forget you. I remember when I was suffer- 
ing so, I remember the little councils we had 
together, and they have lasted in my memory 
and will to the end of all life. 

(General, it seems to be the real spiritual 
sympathies that you remember only — ) 

Yes, well, those are the vital ones, those are 
the real ones. And when you understand bet- 
ter the conditions of life and the conditions 
of passing from that life to this, the changes 
in the life as it were, you will understand more 
clearly what that means. But until then it 
will be difficult for you to understand it fully. 
I have got to go out a moment — you will ex- 
cuse me — I must go for a little change. My 
thoughts begin to wander, and if I stayed you 
would be displeased with my wandering 
thoughts, so I will just go out and get refreshed 
and return instantly. 

[Silence for perhaps a minute, possibly not 
as long.] 

Aie you still here? 

(Yes.) 

I feel better now. I want to know about 
the help to my family. What help have they 
now? 



54 PAST AND PRESENT 

[Some talk about family omitted.] 

(You remember that you thought you knew 
the name of the new baby, and you said it was 
Augustus; well, it was not Augustus, but the 
mother told me that they called him Augustus 
nearly all the time — ) 

Yes, that is what led me — what is his 
name? 

(It is William Everett. They call him 
Augustus when they speak about him.) 

I heard it so much I felt sure it was his 
name. Now I want to know how you are get- 
ting on and what you think about our writing 
that book. 

[Immediately reverts to family again.] 

(General, shall I tell you one or two more 
things before you speak of the book?) 

Yes, you might. 

(There was a man in the State's prison — 
you know — you used to see him sometimes 
with your old friend Chase — ) 

Oh yes ! 

( — and when you passed away he found it 
out and got together a dollar or two and gave 
it to some one and asked him if he would buy 
a rosebush and put it on your grave. I wrote 
him a letter after that about it, and now he is 
out of prison, and he came to see me to thank 



WITH MRS. PIPER 55 

me for the letter and express his admiration 
and love for you.) 

That is very beautiful, very beautiful. I 
am very glad to hear that. Who was he? 

(Oh, he was some old burglar or something, 
nobody that you cared anything about — ) 

[I apologize to-day, 1909, to whom it may 
concern, for this thoughtless reply.] 

But had a heart? 

(Yes, had a heart. Now do you remember 
how you used to lecture on Gettysburg?) 

Oh, yes, I do; yes, I do very well. 

(Well, after you went away I got your 
speeches and put them together and made a 
nice good complete copy, as well as I could, 
and your wife has one of them and I have one. 
Did you know anything about it when I was 
doing it?) 

Well, yes, I knew the outline, but the work 
itself, the actual work as it was going on, I 
could not fathom. But I knew the work con- 
cerned my mortal life and things that transpired 
in it. But the nature of it I could not define. 
We know generally what takes place in a gen- 
eral way, but if we were to define it, condense 
it and give utterance to it, it would be difficult. 
But such is the law of this life. 

Remember, now, if you could see me you 



56 PAST AND PRESENT 

would say I was a mere film, and you would 
say, " how transparent and peculiar and how 
light and how strange you look to me; M and 
you would say, " where is your body? you look 
like a shadow, as it were," but still I could talk 
with you, we could converse with each other, and 
you would be surprised to see how real I am. 
The passing out is really beautiful, just after 
you once get beyond the border, it is perfectly 
beautiful. You know the meaning of the word 
heaven? Well, it is heaven indeed. But the 
coming back is a little confusing at first and we 
have to learn. 

(I think you are good to come back from 
such a place.) 

Well, I have attractions and you seek for 
me and I find you. Don't get nervous, keep 
calm, we shall have time to say all there is to 
say. 

(Did you know anything about your funeral 
at the time?) 

Yes, I knew it and saw the body and saw 
the flowers. I saw the way in which it was 
laid out. I saw — don't you think it looked 
well? I looked as though I was asleep, don't 
you think so? And I don't think the face 
showed suffering — that is, the clay did not 
show the suffering, the body itself — but I 
felt, oh, I was so pleased to be out and away 



WITH MRS. PIPER 57 

from the atmosphere, I felt so choked and so 
distressed for breath, and the moment I was 
released from the imprisoning body then I 
could breathe perfectly. I felt, — I could not 
describe it to you. 

(Well, you had a beautiful funeral and a 
large one, and do you remember your old 
friend Horton, the minister?) 

[Rev. Edward A. Horton, who conducted 
the funeral service. They were familiar 
friends.] 

Yes, yes, very well. 

(I wrote him and thanked him for all he 
said, and thanked him for you, too. Was 
that right?) 

Beautiful, that is beautiful! What did he 
say? 

(Oh, he wrote me a very nice letter, and he 
said if I was satisfied he thought it must have 
been satisfactory to others, because I was so 
close to you and knew you so well. ) 

That is beautiful. I can only say to that, 
Amen. 

[Only one or two remarks of a personal 
nature omitted here.] 

(Now I will let you say what you want to.) 

I want to say this, that when you are work- 
ing I sometimes dictate thoughts to you, and 
it is surprising to me to see how clearly you 



58 PAST AND PRESENT 

register them, and I think sometimes you are 
surprised to think that you have done what 
you have, and if you just stop and give me a 
thought you would know why it was that you 
did those things, registered those thoughts. 
Sometimes there seems to be a barrier between 
you and your thoughts, they are not clear, and 
they seem to be a little obscure, and then they 
clear up [marvelously], and you have always 
attributed that to the condition of your own 
brain, and now if you just give me credit for a 
little bit of help you would do the right thing. 
Not that I am egotistic, but the point is that I 
am really with you. And I want to say one 
thing, that you have not grown old in spirit 
and not in the flesh. It looks so clear to me, 
so free, so bright and so young, and I think 
your body looks the same. I can't see much 
change. Yes, I think you look about the same. 
I can't see the body so clearly as I can the 
spirit. 

(Do you know how old I am?) 

[A brief talk about age omitted. He 
thought me older than I then was. It was 
evidently the comparison of ages which carried 
him back to old associations, for he immedi- 
ately followed it by saying:] 

You remember how we used to talk in the 



WITH MRS. PIPER 59 

office there? Where is that office now? Is 
it there? Is the building gone away? 

[Referring, I presume, to the office of the 
Board of Police in Pemberton Square.] 

(Not that I know of. You mean where we 
were so long together?) 

They are going to remove it and put another 
in its place. 

[This matter was talked of as long ago as 
when he was there, and I think he had plans 
in his own mind for a new building. The 
particular building in which the old office was 
located has not yet (1909) been replaced by a 
new one, although new large buildings have re- 
cently gone up close beside it] 

(They had to get another lady there, 
couldn't get along without the ladies.) 

I know they did. That is very funny. Do 
you ever see anything of Hanscom? 

(Oh, why yes, — I don't see him often, but 
he has a good place there and is well and com- 
fortable. I am so pleased that you should 
think of his name.) 

I could not help thinking about him. All 
of a sudden I thought of him, and I have seen 
him several times since I passed over. I have 
seen him discussing something there with an- 
other man in the office, and my mind reverted 



60 PAST AND PRESENT 

back to the office and the conditions until I hap- 
pened to think of him. He was not well at 
one time, but he is better now — that is, since 
I passed over. 

(Perhaps you like him better than you used 
to?) 

Because I see his principles. 

(I don't believe you quite understood him.) 

I didn't. 

(But I did better than you did.) 

Yes, . e . but I did not understand what 
his active principles were. If you have an op- 
portunity I wish in an indirect way, if not di- 
rect, I wish you could mention me to him, will 
you ? Tell him that you have met me. 

(Perhaps I might have him. call on me, but 
I don't want to give too much of you away, 
you are too precious, but I think he would be 
pleased to hear what you have said about him.) 

Well, tell him that I appreciate all his ef- 
forts and everything that he did a great deal 
better perhaps now than ever. And I would 
like to have you tell him that for me. I don't 
want people to think that you are losing your 
mind, but I think you are far more capable of 
keeping your mind by finding me perhaps than 
others, than some of those who perhaps would 
not listen to it. So we will keep that a secret 
between ourselves. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 61 

(You better leave that to my discretion, 
about seeing him.) 

I will. 

[Orinton M. Hanscom was. formerly one of 
the higher officials in the police department. 
In 1888, after a protracted hearing on charges 
preferred against him, and a decided disagree- 
ment among the members of the board in re- 
gard to the case, he was discharged from the 
force. I have memoranda in shorthand under 
date of December, 1888, to the effect that Dr. 
Phinuit, the early control of Mrs. Piper, pre- 
dicted to me that Mr. Hanscom would some- 
time go back to his old position. In March, 
1889, the prediction was repeated, that he 
would go back to his old position or to his old 
surroundings. He was out of the department 
six years. In 1894, after General Martin be- 
came chairman of the board, his case was re- 
opened and he was reinstated in the depart- 
ment, being appointed to a higher position than 
the one he formerly occupied, namely, that of 
deputy-superintendent. There had formerly 
never been more than one deputy-superintend- 
ent, but now two more men were given that 
ranking, Mr. Hanscom being one of them. 
The General, therefore, had shown himself very 
friendly to Mr. Hanscom, but when, after the 
reinstatement, they came to be actively asso- 



62 PAST AND PRESENT 

dated, I think there was a feeling of disap- 
pointment on the part of the General in Mr. 
Hanscom. The latter was a man of rather 
broad outlook, with ideas of reform, which he 
liked to discuss, but his ideas did not always 
seem to be appreciated by his fellows or su- 
periors. The General wanted his orders put 
into effect quickly, even though they might be 
difficult of execution. There was, therefore, 
this lack of harmony between the two men, 
which was perfectly apparent to me at the time. 
Therefore the remarks of my communicator 
given above, to the effect that he did not un- 
derstand his active principles, but that he ap- 
preciated all his efforts now better than he 
ever did before, wishing to be remembered to 
Mr. Hanscom, are extremely pertinent. Some 
time after date of this sitting I met Mr. Hans- 
com accidentally and gave him the substance of 
the message, which he received with the courtesy 
habitual to him, refraining from criticism. 
Since then he has himself passed away. 1 ] 

1 Since the above was written Mr. Hanscom has pur- 
ported to return. This occurred at a sitting which took 
place on Dec. 16, 1908. The communications were suddenly 
broken off and I was told that a friend wanted to speak 
to me. I had no thought of any one but Hiram Hart, who 
I presumed was interrupting for a word of greeting. Rector 
stumbled a little over the name, but only a little, calling it 
" Hanson." Not till that moment did the thought of Hanscom 
enter my mind. I asked Rector to get the name exactly, and 
he spelled it out easily and correctly: "Hanscom — 



WITH MRS. PIPER 63 

[In conversation about my private work, 
where it would be best to spend my vacation, 
etc., I say:] 

(Greenacre, — don't you remember I used to 
go there?) 

I should approve of that at once, and sanc- 
tion it. 

[Reference to Greenacre will appear in a 
later sitting.] 

Do you remember a woman you used to talk 
to me about in the body who used to have, — 
the spirits used to speak through her? 

(Yes.) 

[This refers, of course, to Mrs. Piper.] 

Well, I want you some time to be in her sur- 
rounding when I am not speaking and see if 
I can reach you, see if the thoughts will be 
clearer to you. I think it would be worth 
while to try it, because I often reach over the 
line when I don't speak. 

(Do you mean when the Light is not work- 
ing?) 

Orin. Don't you remember Orin?" It did not occur to me 
until after the sitting that the Christian name should have 
been " Orinton " and not " Orin." I do not know whether 
his intimate friends called him " Orin " when in life or not, 
but it is quite likely they did. There was a very brief con- 
versation. He said: "What a happy ending to a blighted 
career!" Mrs. Piper, in her normal state, faintly recalled 
the name as that of some one whom she had heard spoken 
of, but said she did not know that he had passed to the 
Other Side. His death occurred in November, 1907. 



64 PAST AND PRESENT 

When the Light is not working, when it is 
closed. 

(We were together a while ago in an eve- 
ning, but then there were a good many people 
about.) 

I mean quietly, when there is nobody about 
except the spiritual intelligences and when we 
are not actually acting upon it, and I think 
ideas would come to you very clearly. 

[I cannot say that any special experiment 
on my part was made in accordance with this 
request. Opportunities to be with Mrs. Piper 
alone, when not in trance, were rare with me.] 

I have got to go out to get my breath. I 
will be right back in a moment, but I have to 
refresh myself. 

[While the General is apparently out, Hi- 
ram Hart steps in, speaking hurriedly as if 
he had only a moment, and saying that he saw 
the other gentleman " going out," so thought 
he would " come in " and say " how do you 
do." As he appears to be going I say: " Oh, 
have you got to go?" He replies: " Oh, 
they have kept him so clear I want him to learn 
what I know." The other gentleman then re- 
turns.] 

Well, I am right back here again. I met 
Mr. Hart and he told me he just wanted to 
speak to you a moment while I was refreshing 



WITH MRS. PIPER 65 

myself, so I said, " Go ahead and ask Rector if 
you can get in." Wasn't he a clergyman? 

(He was not here, but he says he is now.) 

Well, he is preaching and praying and help- 
ing all the people that come over this side — 
or the spirits — and he is a wonderful preacher 
and he has done a great deal for me, and I am 
glad to know him because he was your friend. 
They say it is not all gold that glitters, but 
there is a great deal glitters here that is gold. 

(Well, he seems to admire you. He says 
you are very handsome.) 

[Laughing.] 

Well, I suppose he thinks so. 

(You used to be here.) 

Oh, you think so? There is no accounting 
for tastes, you know. But we have to accept 
those things. He is a good soul and I like 
him. He has done, I say, a great deal for me, 
pointed out the way a great many times. 

(Now, General, I will let you say what you 
want to, but you were going to tell me some- 
thing, — what happened just after you went 
out, either on this side or on your side. Give 
me some new ideas, will you?) 

Yes, I will. You know the actual passing 
out of the body, there is a little feeling of, 
sort of depression, as it were, and then when 
I passed out, just as I passed out, I began to 



66 PAST AND PRESENT 

feel uplifted. I felt as though the air was 
filled with perfume, and I was [soaring], rising, 
rising, rising above my body until I passed be- 
hind simply a veil. It is thin. It blinds your 
vision. It obstructs the vision for a moment 
from the earthly world. Then after we have 
passed beyond it, why the music, the flowers, 
the trees, the birds, the lakes, the rivers, the 
hills, the gardens, the walks, are perfectly mag- 
nificent, perfectly magnificent, and nothing in 
the earthly world hardly can even correspond 
to them. And we are taken up by perhaps a 
priest, or man that acts in the capacity of what 
you would understand as a clergyman, and they 
say: " This is a state of transition. You are 
now in the real life, in the new life. You will 
not see the face of the Father for many, many 
years, but He will give you strength and power 
to go back if you wish and see those whom you 
have left behind." And the feeling of ecstasy 
is beyond description, and no spirit that ever 
returned to earth could begin to describe it for 
the understanding of the mortal mind. 

And then I was surrounded by friends, by ac- 
quaintances, by old war veterans, by my in- 
timate friends whom I know, members of my 
family and all, surrounded by them, welcoming 
me. Why, I felt as though I should be en- 
veloped by them, the delight was so great, but 



WITH MRS. PIPER 67 

when I tried to call them by name I was at a 
loss to do so. They had to tell me who they 
were. I knew their faces, not one failed to me. 

I knew them and understood them well. I saw 
them and recognized them, but to call them by 
name, believe me, I could not. And when I 
tried to speak I found instead of it being an 
effort and difficult for me to speak, I found that 
my thoughts were understood, actually under- 
stood, and their thoughts were returned to me. 
There was a perfect communion between us. 

And then I was taken — would you believe 
it if I should tell you? I was taken to an 
actual mansion. It would be what you would 
call a palace. There is a garden, walks about 
it. It is divided into rooms, actual compart- 
ments. I was taken to that and [they] said: 

II Here is your home; occupy it, live in it; have 
what friends you choose w T ith you, what rela- 
tives you choose with you, and as those whom 
you have left behind follow you, you may 
welcome them to this home as you may see fit." 
Do you understand it? 

(Yes.) . 

I went in and looked about me. I said: 
"Where does this music come from?" I 
walked through a corridor and turned into a 
room at the right and actually walked without 
fatigue, without effort; I simply glided in. I 



68 PAST AND PRESENT 

saw beautiful pictures upon the walls, I saw 
beautiful flowers that we called in the body 
palms, growing about me. I heard this beau- 
tiful music. I stepped along to a window and 
looked out, and under the window there were 
fifty young, beautiful faces, all playing, — an 
orchestra. That was my welcome, that was 
my serenade, as it were. And they said: 
" This is heaven, this is the spiritual world. 
We greet you." I went to the window and as 
I looked out upon the orchestra they each one 
bowed and waved their hands, and yet the 
music continued. They were playing upon in- 
struments, actual instruments, all in harmony, 
and I never heard anything like it in the earthly 
world. The music was divine. I said: "I 
would like to go elsewhere. 1 ' I bade them 
good-by, as it were, — I just saluted them and 
passed along across the corridor back through 
the room, across the corridor into the opposite 
side. 

I said: " Now I would like to see if it is 
possible, I would like to see flowers about me." 
I went to the window, and would you believe, 
the flowers appeared to me in masses, en masse, 
I might say, and I never saw such flowers. 
There were lilies, roses, violets, geraniums, 
carnations, azaleas, hyacinths, tulips, poppies, 
of every conceivable description, not all inter- 



WITH MRS. PIPER 69 

mingled, but each one in its own place. What 
could you find, what could one wish for better 
than that? 

I said: " Now if it is wise and right that 
I should seek it, I would like to hear some- 
thing that sounds like the voice of a bird." 
They said: " Come this way." I was sur- 
rounded by these beautiful friends and by 
clergymen — a good many clergymen there and 
they said some beautiful things — and they 
said: " Come to this window and see." But 
I said. " May I not hear them here?" I 
listened. In a moment the air was filled with 
the music of the different birds. Well, you 
have no conception of what that melody was 
like. I saw the birds. The birds were just as 
distinct, much more so than your own. The 
flowers are real, and as I go back to the mortal 
life and see the crudeness of it and see how I 
lived, the active energy and the active life 
that I then led, the energy which I put into 
that life, I wonder that I ever existed in it at 
all. Now you are not living in the real life. 
You are living in a dream, as it were. When 
you awaken from the dream you will live, in the 
eternal life. 

[At this point an account is given of his 
asking to know something about Christ, to 
know whether he had been deceived in the 



70 PAST AND PRESENT 

earthly world in what he had been taught 
about Christ, and a description is given of a 
certain vision that was vouchsafed him. I 
have thought best to omit this whole passage, 
except to say that at its close he exclaims :] 

And I'live to tell you of it! 

I walked about, I felt,—- it was strange I 
had no hunger, no thirst, no desire to eat, no 
desire for food, but I am sustained by the con- 
dition of the elements. The condition of the 
elements is such that we are fed and sustained 
and live by them. You can understand it per- 
haps vaguely if not clearly. You have a won- 
derful pow T er to understand, or used to have. 
I think perhaps you can picture me and picture 
my home and picture my surroundings. At 
least, I make it as clear as I can for your under- 
standing. 

Now would you like to ask me any questions ? 
Interrupt me if you wish to. 

(Well, what do you do mostly with your 
time?) 

Well, now I will tell you. What would cor- 
respond with your morning — we have no 
morning, — that is, it is all morning in a sense, 
in a way, — there is no daylight and darkness 
with us, it is all daylight — and what corre- 
sponds with your morning — I find that there 
are always entering into this life, there are 



WITH MRS. PIPER 71 

spirits entering constantly from your life, and 
each one needs help, needs to be shown the 
way, and I enter the multitude, the throng out- 
side of my own home; I pass through, I see the 
veil uplifted, I see a spirit passing in, perhaps 
millions of spirits. And I was told when I 
entered it that I must make this life here useful 
by helping others and by reverencing God, 
offering up gratitude in a prayerful spirit to 
Him who created me and gave me the privi- 
lege of this life here. And I do that through 
the so-called day, without fatigue, with per- 
fect delight, assist some one spirit or more who 
have left the body and entered this life. And 
until they are fully conscious and realize where 
they are — some are taken from us, we are not 
allowed to see them at all, they are taken into 
another sphere; those are passed beyond us, we 
have nothing to do practically with them — 
but there are spirits that enter our own sphere, 
and we each lend a hand, show them their 
homes, settle them in it, go back and help an- 
other, and we are constantly doing that. 

And then I feel sometimes that I would 
like to help in something that corresponds 
with your writing. I find in my home every- 
thing for which I ask. If I wish pencil, what 
corresponds with your pencil, I have it. If 
I wish to write my thoughts I can write them, 



72 PAST AND PRESENT 

if I wish to speak them I can do so, and every 
thought is granted, every desire is granted. 
And if I wish to lecture, as I often do, I can 
do so without fatigue, and it is helpful to those 
who enter this life. If I wish to write I can 
write, if I wish to walk I can walk, if I wish 
to sing I can sing, if I wish to speak I can 
speak. That makes the life, as you would un- 
derstand it, perfect. It is a perfect life. And 
in order to live this perfect life you have got to 
live in that imperfect life, and the more you 
undertake to prepare for this life the less you 
have to go through when you pass it, and the 
clearer your thoughts become when you enter 
it. Have you got the idea? Would you like 
to ask me anything? There are instruments 
all about me, everything you can think of — 
harps, violins, bugles, trumpets, horns, pianos, 
spinet — do you remember what a spinet is? 
All those instruments. 

(They are just the same as our instruments, 
only better?) 

Only better. Everything is beautiful, and 
it is in a way, each article, object, as well as 
spirit, luminiferous. If the eye was opened 
to the spiritual and you could see me as I stand 
here talking with you, you could see every ges- 
ture I make, which is copied by Rector. He 
imitates me as I speak with you. You could 



WITH MRS. PIPER 73 

see me and see my home, you could see every- 
thing that I have in it. 

(Then what do you do in the afternoon?) 
Then in the afternoon sometimes I write a 
lecture, I go out and look at my flowers, enjoy 
them; I go and visit others, they visit me. I 
learn to play on the instruments, the different 
instruments. I am absorbed in music and I 
love the flowers and the birds. 

Then I feel as though I would like to take 
up some intellectual pursuit, and then I begin, 
and I am studying with those who have been 
here longer than myself the actual conditions 
of this life and what go to make up the life 
here, and as I learn I give it out to others, 
interpret my knowledge to others. Therefore 
our intellectual capacity is unlimited in a sense, 
and constantly being educated. And it is a 
beautiful idea, is it not? And then all 
through what you would call evening, during 
the evening, what would correspond with your 
evening, there is chiefly music going on, enter- 
tainment and music. Then after that passes, 
what corresponds with your early morning or 
late in the night, there are lectures and concerts 
of all kinds and descriptions going on, so that 
our lives are completely filled. And then dur- 
ing the later hours of the morning, before what 
would be your daylight, every single spirit on 



74 PAST AND PRESENT 

my side of the spirit life where I am [is] bowed 
in prayer for what would be at least two or 
three hours corresponding with your time, per- 
fect devotion and a prayer. 

(Then you don't have to sleep the way we 
do?) 

Have no sleep, no rest. What corresponds 
with your rest is activity on our part. And 
then after the devotional exercises we are ready 
for what would correspond with your day for 
our work again. Can you conceive of any- 
thing more beautiful or more perfect, or more 
to the liking of a man with my tastes and my 
ideas? 

(No.) 

But man should live his allotted time in the 
earthly world to prepare to live and to live in 
this world, but if he takes his life intentionally 
or otherwise he remains in a sense like a little 
child here, or a germ, and he has to develop, 
unfold, bud and flower, and he must necessarily 
do so. Ask me anything you wish. I am so 
glad to tell you this because I want you to get 
some conception of what I am and what I am 
doing. This is not an idle, useless life here, — 
ah, no, not at all. 

(How long does it take for you to come to 
me?) 

[I meant at any time when I might think of 



WITH MRS. PIPER 75 

him or call him, but I evidently did not make 
my meaning clear.] 

I would seem some distance from you if you 
could see me as I am. When you have a de- 
sire to speak with me — there are spirits here 
who know every mortal on the face of the 
earth; that is, the same one does not know, 
but the different ones know every mortal — and 
they say: " Here is a friend, I think she is a 
friend of yours; there the Light is beginning 
to burn, it is open; we have attached the ethe- 
real cord and we will remove the spirit from 
the Light, take it to our world or out on the 
cord, attach the cord to the shell, as it were, 
fill it with our ethereal light, and you can enter 
into it and see if it is your friend, and if so fol- 
low Rector, follow those that are used to the 
cord and go to the end of it and speak over it 
to Rector, who is actually within the shell him- 
self, and he will transmit your messages to your 
friend." It takes in all, I suppose, of your 
time five or ten minutes perhaps for me to 
reach you. 

[There is a brief talk about relationships, 
and I say:] 

(You choose your own friends there, as 
here, don't you?) 

Just the same. 



76 PAST AND PRESENT 

It has been a perfect pleasure for me to 
see you again. Good-by. God bless you. 
Come and see me again. May God watch 
over you. 

Close 



SITTING OF DECEMBER 20, 1904 

[During the morning hours of the date given 
above, while my sitting was going on, another of 
Mrs. Piper's sitters underwent a surgical opera- 
tion of some sort. I had not been told that an 
operation was to take place, nor do I know 
to-day who this person was. Rector explained 
to me that Imperator was obliged to be absent 
from the sitting, that he had left Prudens in 
charge while he, Imperator, was " over and 
around the cot " of a member of the circle. 
Near the close of the sitting, which lasted two 
hours, I was asked to take a message to Dr. 
Hodgson to the effect that the operation had 
gone on well. I noted the exact time when 
this was told me and sent the message to Dr. 
Hodgson by telegram at the earliest possible 
moment. I afterwards learned that the opera- 
tion had gone on well, and that the person 
operated upon was much gratified on being told 
at an early hour what came from the Other 
Side of the Veil in regard to himself, communi- 



WITH MRS. PIPER 77 

cated first to me, by me to Dr. Hodgson, and by 
the latter to the person concerned.] 

Rector 

[During the course of Rector's remarks I 
say:] 

(Rector, wait a moment. Through whom 
is my friend going to talk now?) 

He will try and speak direct to thee, if this 
be possible; if not I shall remain, as it were, 
a non-entity, giving his messages. 

(You have allowed him to do that?) 

Yes, I have, through the advice and com- 
mand of our Leader. 

• ••••• 

(Now, Rector, my friend is really and truly 
here almost exactly the same as if he were in 
his own body, is he not?) 

Almost the same, and if thy spiritual eyes 
could open thou wouldst see him standing here 
beside the ethereal cord, waiting his turn to 
enter into the Light upon the cord. 

The General 

Are you here? 
(Yes.) 

I am here to meet you. Oh how happy I 
am! 

(Who is it? Don't be offended, will you?) 



78 PAST AND PRESENT 

[Rattles off some lines of poetry, evidently 
some of the same words which came on the 
occasion of his first return, Dec. 23, 1903. I 
afterwards found the verse which he was quot- 
ing, which is by Charles Mackay, and runs as 
follows : — 

Tell me, ye winged winds 

That round my pathway roar, 
Do ye not know some spot 

Where mortals weep no more; 
Some lone and pleasant dell, 

Some valley in the West, 
Where free from toil and pain, 

The weary soul may rest? 

This bursting out into some language which 
was rythmical, especially when he was happy, 
was most characteristic of him in life.] 

Yes, the answer comes to me in the spirit, 
I have found it. I have found the rest, the 
life, the peace, hope, everything I hoped to 
find. . . . Now you know who it is? 

(Oh, I know any way, only I thought I 
would just ask you that.) 

Well, if you should say " General " I should 
be pleased to hear it. 

• ••••• 

(When I first knew you I could not get used 
to calling you " General," but after I did get 
accustomed to it I could not call you anything 



WITH MRS. PIPER 79 

else, because that seemed to be the right name 
for you.) 

You thought it applicable? 

(Yes.) 

Well, that is pleasant. . . . Remember that 
the laws of vibration are very wonderful, very, 
very great, and my thought reaches you and 
vice versa. Therefore, for what more could I 
ask? [Something about his family doing 
well] My friends are loyal and I am happy, 
and the mere fact of my returning and speaking 
with you is an inspiration beyond description. 

(Well, it helps me more than anything else 
I do.) 

These good saints have helped me to under- 
stand the laws of communication, and I am 
not so much of an idiot that I should laugh at 
it or pooh-pooh at it further. 

(Well, you would better not.) 

How can I? The reality, it is a stern real- 
ity, and such a reality that it is the only thing 
which God hath given us to enable us to un- 
derstand the laws of the eternal life. Is not 
that beautiful? 

(Yes.) 

Is it not beautiful? And it is the only way. 
So the casting off of the mere body, the shell, is 
nothing, it is nothing; it goes to waste, but my 
spirit lives to speak. 



80 PAST AND PRESENT 

(General — ) 

Without the wires I could not communicate 
so easily, but with the wires my thoughts are 
registered clearly, are they not? 

(Yes. General — ) 

Yes? 

(You are taking Rector's place to-day, aren't 
you ?) 

For the first time I am, yes. Dear creature, 
he is here to Ijelp me, he stands beside me 
watching me to see that no harm comes to the 
instrument over which I speak. 

(Well, it is not so very hard, is it?) 

No, not hard, but if you were to question 
me one question after another it might confuse 
me, but you ask your questions so clearly, so 
slowly and in moderation, that I can under- 
stand them and reply. But if you were to 
fire questions at me, so to speak, volley after 
volley, it would confuse me so I should be 
obliged to go out. You understand? 

(Yes.) 

You look so well. ... I see your spirit so 
clearly. I see what I did not use to see. I 
saw the physical and not so much the spirit. I 
see the spirit and the physical both combined. 
They both seem clear to me and beautiful. I 
am glad you followed out my instructions. I 
saw you in the place which I designated. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 81 

(Do you know where that is now? What 
do you mean?) 

I saw you in a place with a lady, a very 
beautiful character, a very interesting charac- 
ter. 

(Do you know who that is, or when it was?) 

It is what we used to call summer-, and it 
was in a green place, in a green place, and 
everything so beautiful, so peaceful. 

[I spent several weeks during the preceding 
summer at a place called " Greenacre," in the 
town of Eliot, state of Maine. It is sometimes 
called " Greenacre-on-the-Piscataqua." Sum- 
mer conferences have been held there for a 
number of years past, a large assembly-tent is 
erected on the greensward indicated by the 
name, and representatives of all religions are 
welcomed to the open platform.] 

I saw you attending something seemed like 
lectures. I saw you conversing with an oc- 
casional gentleman, and I saw you sitting — 
it looked like a tent — 

(Yes.) 

— and saw you walking about. 

(Yes.) 

I saw you, — was it in a hammock? Some- 
thing swinging. 

(Yes, once or twice.) 

And I saw you sitting there thinking, as it 



82 PAST AND PRESENT 

were, alone, and it seemed as though the shad- 
ows of night had fallen, aiid it was in the 
evening. 

(Oh,jes.) 

[I think it was at this point that I recalled 
a special evening. See explanation later.] 

And I came and stood beside you and put 
my hand on your shoulder, and I heard you 
say, " How peaceful, how perfectly delightful 
it is." Do you remember it? 

(Yes.) 

Do you remember seeing the moon? The 
heavens seemed dark and then the moon ap- 
peared. It was early in the evening. And 
then I saw you get up, somebody came and 
spoke to you and you got up, walked ahout a 
little and went inside a building. 

(I was in this hammock, I think twice, but 
one night a long time, and I even fell asleep 
there.) 

Yes that was the time when I put my hand 
on your shoulder and had the beautiful mes- 
sages of peace from your spirit. 

(Well, I went to sleep, oh very easily and 
beautifully, and I woke up and thought how 
beautiful it was to sleep there under the 
stars — ) 

Yes, stars, that is what I mean. 

( — and I even got locked out of the house.) 



WITH MRS. PIPER 83 

Yes, yes, I know there was some difficulty 
in your getting in. I know that. And then 
I remember the surprise which came" over you 
when you [recovered]. 

(Yes, I was surprised.) 

And I was with you all through that little 
sleep, talking with your spirit. Do you re- 
member what a peaceful wave came through 
you? 

(Yes.) 

It was I who sent it, who brought it. 

(When I sleep like that it seems as if I was 
off somewhere; I am perfectly unconscious of 
this world, and where am I then?) 

The spirit, your spirit, goes out upon an 
ethereal cord, just the same as the spirit of the 
Light here departs. Now I see the spirit of a 
woman going out, and it is the same in sleep, 
and I talk with your spirit just the same as I 
am talking with you now. Sometimes I al- 
most feel that you will remember it, but when 
the spirit becomes active and fully possessed 
of the body and mind, then it forgets. 

(Yes. Do you mean that is so always in 
sleep, or only in those occasional sleeps?) 

Under certain conditions, only. The sleep 
might be disturbed if the spirit communicated 
with it always, but upon certain occasions and 
under certain conditions we are able to talk 



84 PAST AND PRESENT 

with the spirit very, very clearly. The spirit 
understands and answers — 

(You mean the earthly spirit?) 

Yes, just the same as you answer me when 
I speak with you now. Why, to know that 
I can follow you, to know that I can see you 
in certain places and under certain conditions 
— and do you remember the tent? 

(Yes, yes!) 

Well, I saw you under the tent and sat be- 
side you several times, and there was another 
lady with you. Who was that lady? She was 
a beautiful spirit, a bright, beautiful looking 
woman, a very clear mind and beautiful spirit. 
Is her name Sarah? 

(Wait a moment. You know I am taking 
this all down, don't you, General?) 

I do not see what you are actually doing. I 
Sree your thoughts are busy, very busy. 

(I want to preserve every word. And it is 
so delightful to think that I can write down 
in shorthand just what you say, just exactly as 
I used to do when you were here.) 

Oh, yes, I remember, that is what you are 
doing. Well, I do not actually see the writ- 
ing going on, or the motion of your hand, or 
the — paper, is it? But I see you, your gen- 
eral outline, and I see you, as it were, in the 
light. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 85 

You look as though there was a light all 
about you. 

(Well, now let's be slow.) 

That is the reflection of the spirit about you. 

(My spirit?) 

Yes, your own spirit. There is a reflec- 
tion, aa it were, all about you. It is very clear 
and very beautiful to me. 

(Do you mean Sarah Farmer?) 

I should not wonder. That sounds some- 
thing like the name I heard, her called by. 
She was not actually with you, but I saw you 
with her and saw you talking with her, and 
she has a very large spirit, a very broad spirit, 
and a very large and beautiful mind. Was 
that not so? 

(Miss Farmer is the person who started 
that place and who has charge of it and has 
gotten all the fine speakers there, etc., and she 
is considered a very advanced spirit. Do you 
think it was she?) 

Yes, it was she whom I saw. 

(You know she was not a special friend of 
mine, though I know her.) 

But I saw another lady, but I saw another 
lady with you — 

(Well, General, wait a minute, wait a min- 
ute. How did you know her name was 
Sarah?) 



86 PAST AND PRESENT 

I heard several ladies in a large room one 

— you would call it evening again — calling 

— one spoke to her very intimately and called 
her Sarah, and I was within — I was perhaps 

— let me see — where is your hand? 

[The psychic takes my hand and holds it 
about a foot from my face.] 

I was within that distance, the distance that 
your hand is from your face, from her, when 
the name was called, and we can hear, and 
we can' see and understand names as they are 
spoken in the body if we are attracted to any 
one individually. 

(I see.) 

And oftentimes the names, if we are inter- 
ested, register themselves upon our memories 
and we never forget them. But to go back to 
this evening. Then you got in, didn't you — 

(Yes.) _ 

— all right, but that was the time when I 
saw you very clearly. 

(Yes.) 

[All the incidents referred to in the pre- 
ceding conversation about Greenacre are al- 
most literally true, though I am aware that 
some of them are simply things which one 
would naturally do during a summer outing. 
The sleep in the hammock, however, was an 
unusual one, and I have rarely, if ever, had 



WITH MRS. PIPER 87 

one just like it. The fact is that I dislike the 
motion of a swinging hammock and seldom 
lie in one. The evening in question was one 
of those still, balmy .evenings when it seems 
a sin to sleep under other canopy than the 
starry blue. I do not remember the moon, 
think there was none, or not until very late. 
I found an empty hammock a few rods from 
the Inn and appropriated it. I remember 
thinking how delightful it was to lie there fac- 
ing the stars, entirely free from contact with 
the earth, a part of the atmosphere around 
me. I believe I even felt that I had been in 
error all my life thus far in not overcoming 
my dislike to the motion of a hammock. I 
fell easily into a sleep which must have been a 
deep one, and woke surprised to find from the 
general appearance of the Inn that it was 
late. I spoke with a gentleman who was pass- 
ing, and as I remember I addressed him first. 
We went on the veranda, where there was one 
other person, and found that the Inn was 
closed for the night and we were locked out. 
Fortunately a parlor window was easily opened 
and then the door unlocked from the inside. 
I do not remember that I did, and think I did 
not, dream anything in the sleep which I could 
afterwards recall. I seldom heard Miss 
Farmer called Sarah, though that is her name. 



88 PAST AND PRESENT 

I was not specially with her, but probably spoke 
with her once or twice during my stay. I re- 
member going to Greenacre one summer sev- 
eral years before the General passed away, re- 
turning and telling him about the place. That 
he ever heard Miss Farmer's Christian name 
spoken is very doubtful. He knew very little 
about her when living.] 

(Now, General, why can't I learn to go out 
that way in sleep at will, almost?) 

Well, it sometimes is not wise, sometimes 
it is not healthful, and it rests with the divine 
power as to when those conditions are suita- 
ble. Perhaps you can better understand that. 
I have learned a great deal about the condi- 
tions since I have been here, and it has been 
my one thought to study into the conditions 
and understand them for your sake, that I 
might be able to help you. I now see what 
a clear beautiful mind you had and why you 
were so interested in things which seemed to 
me rather absurd. 

(Well, I am glad to hear you say that. All 
things come to him who waits.) 

Yes, that is very true, but in the material 
life, in the mortal life, it seemed that I was 
unable with my peculiar make-up to grasp any- 
thing which I could not see. 

(Yes.) 



WITH MRS. PIPER 89 

Therefore perhaps you will excuse me for 
not accepting your theories, but I lived to learn 
and understand for myself. It was a happy 
day when I came. The awakening was some- 
thing beyond description. I never can tell 
you how I felt when I woke, and as my spirit 
passed up from that imprisoning body, through 
the cool ether, and the ethereal veil parted and 
my spirit passed through it into this beautiful 
world, the sensation and the light [delight] of 
it all is beyond my power to explain, and could 
I explain it in earthly words your mind could 
not really grasp it or understand it. 

(Yes. General, you say that you could not 
accept things unless you could see them, but I 
thought you had a very fine and highly de- 
veloped spirit, otherwise you would not have 
gone so quickly into the right conditions there 
and understood how to come back here, and be 
taken in by Imperator and Rector, etc., would 
you?) 

You realized, I think, that my desire was 
for the advancement of mind, and you remem- 
ber how I used to love poetry, and that I had 
a vein of sentiment, as you used to express it. 
Well, all that is fine spiritual perception; and 
it is really beautiful to me, now when I realize 
that I possessed that at all when in the physi- 
cal body, and it has been a great benefactor 



90 PAST AND PRESENT 

to me in this life. You understand what I 
mean. 

(Yes.) 

It has been a great help, a great help to 
me, the mere fact of my growing in spirit in 
the body, and I really loved the beautiful. 

(General, don't you remember how a beau- 
tiful woman used to impress you? Wait a 
moment — a friend of yours said once, old 
Mr. Clapp, that he did not know any man 
who took in the soul of a beautiful woman any 
more quickly than you did. We laughed over 
it, but I knew it was so.) 

You understood it? 

(Yes.) 

Well, that is very beautiful, very kind in 
him to have said it. But I really think that 
I do, and know now that I did, I know that 
I understood women and the beautiful side as 
few men did in my environment or among my 
associates. And all those things appealed to 
me, and it was that that was highest and best. 
All that appealed to me most. And I was 
very happy in my earthly life in a way. I 
loved life for what life gave, and I loved the 
pleasures, and I loved the physical and all that 
the physical gave, but still I was large enough 
in heart, I feel, and in spirit not to allow the 
physical temptations to drown my soul. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 91 

(Yes.) 

[This is a very good characterization of 
himself.] 

• ••••• 

(I am of course very greatly blessed and 
privileged to have your continued friendship 
and to be allowed to come here and talk with 
you.) 

Well, there are so many restrictions. This 
great spirit, this man here who leads, he is 
the noblest spirit I know, and there are so 
many restrictions, — he understands the condi- 
tions so well, and he has his everlasting eye 
open watching constantly that no harm shall 
befall anything or anybody connected or as- 
sociated with the Light or the spiritual influ- 
ences who work through it. Why, it is really 
marvelous. 

(You mean Imperator?) 

Yes. He is not present at the moment be- 
cause he is away on a mission, but all those 
whom he does call, remember, really are priv- 
ileged. 

[See note at opening of this sitting.] 

(Yes, indeed, they are. Now I want to ask 
you to watch, and if you think you are not go- 
ing to have any more opportunities to come 
to me through this Light, then I want you 
to get one final chance if possible and tell me 



92 PAST AND PRESENT 

that you cannot come more. Will you try to 
do so?) 

Will you repeat that once more for me? 
You mean that I must return here — and tell 
you before — 

[Think I replied yes.] 

Oh, yes, — well, I am going to tell you some- 
thing. We call them the saints; they told me 
before I came here, before I asked them if I 
might speak with you, they told me that — the 
leader, the head spirit — he said that the con- 
ditions were low, but he said: " I will not go 
into explanation, but abide by what I say; the 
conditions are such that I must exert all my 
influence and power to hold the conditions in 
a sufficient state of clearness to enable you to 
return to your friends on the earthly side at 
all." Do you hear? 

(Yes.) 

And he also said: " By so doing, by doing 
this, you will be enabled to return through the 
Light occasionally for an unrestricted time — M 

(Well, well, well, that is beautiful.) 

— " and only under those conditions will you 
be permitted to return at all through the pres- 
ent Light." Therefore he has taken up the 
Light and is specially administering unto it to 
keep it for those who really need light and 
help. Do you understand? 



. WITH MRS. PIPER 93 

(Yes.) 

Well, if you do not perhaps Rector could 
make it clearer to you. 

(I do.) 

This was a private conversation between Im- 
perator and myself, and he notified all the 
communicators who return through this Light 
of the conditions, and were it not for him and 
his wonderful power I perhaps should not be 
able to return, but so grateful are we to him 
that we offer up our blessings daily and almost 
hourly to him for his guidance and help. I 
wish you could see him. 

[A few brief sentences only omitted here.] 

I know one thing, I know that they all on 
our side can see and have predicted the ab- 
sence of the Light on the other side of the 
water. 

[It must be remembered that it was after 
the date of this sitting that Dr. Hodgson 
passed out. Mrs. Piper spent the winter of 
1906-7 abroad.] 

[In speaking of a prediction made concern- 
ing myself he says :] 

Perhaps you had better ask Rector about 
that, as he is very clear and understands that 
very well; or, better still, George Pelham. 
Perhaps you know him? He has been a great 
help to me, a great help to me; although he 



94 PAST AND PRESENT 

is not so near the earth and the conditions 
surrounding the Light as I am at the present 
time, he really is a great help. 

(Is he in another sphere, so called?) 

Yes, he is in the last sphere, what you would 
speak of as heaven; the last, seventh sphere. 

(What sphere are you in?) 

I am in the third now. We have to pass 
through the third sphere in order to return, 
one might say, and therefore I could not re- 
turn immediately directly I passed out of my 
body. 

(Oh, that is the reason, is it?) 

Yes. It is just like going from one room 
to another. [Illustrated by change of loca- 
tion in the material world] We advance 
until we feel that we have perfected ourselves 
according to God's will and idea, and then we 
are satisfied with ourselves, and not until we 
have. 

(Well, when you first passed out did you go 
into the first sphere, or do you call this the 
first sphere where I am?) 

Entering the material life is one sphere of 
life; that is the first, because life comes with 
the creation of the mortal body; life comes, 
it is the breath of God, and you are a branch 
of His great tree, you understand, and then 
the spirit grows, advances. Sometimes it does 



WITH MRS. PIPER 95 

not advance in the mortal because it is ham- 
pered by physical ill, etc. If not, it is re- 
moved after a time and enters our life and 
then begins to develop and grow. 

(Well then do you think every one leaves 
here just when it is right for him to go, whether 
he is young or old?) 

Yes, yes, yes, that is all in the hands of God, 
and although we never see God — I have 
never seen Him and never hope to — He rules 
us all and reigns over us all, and we are a 
part, a branch of Him, and your question will 
make that clear to me. 

(When any one dies, as we call it, whether 
he is thirty or eighty years old, it is the right 
time for him, do you think, or is death merely 
an accident, the time of death?) 

Oh, it is not an accident. It is ordained by 
God. I could not understand when I was in 
the body why certain things [happened], why 
certain deaths took place, and so on, but God 
knows what their lives are and what they are 
to be should they live. Therefore He re- 
moves them perhaps through disaster, perhaps 
through accident, perhaps through fire, per- 
haps through loss of a vessel, and all that 
sort of thing, and He removes many at a time. 
But every spirit that enters this life, there is 
a home prepared for it and a place prepared 



96 PAST AND PRESENT 

for it. Perhaps you know that in the earthly 
Bible, the material Bible, " In my Father's 
house there are many mansions ;" do you re- 
member that? 

(Yes.) 

That has a literal meaning. . . . The spirit 
really never suffers, never knows a moment's 
pain or anguish of any kind. I know this from 
the — pure experience and study. 

(But, General, you are not always, you over 
there, perfectly developed, and does not your 
happiness depend on your inner development 
there as it does here, your degree of happi- 
ness?) 

Well, yes, to an extent, but we never suffer 
as suffering is expressed and understood by you. 

(Yes, I see, I see. How about age there? 
How old are you compared with Imperator? 
What is the standard of measurement?) 

Well, Imperator is — in fact, no spirit is 
ever old, there is no such thing as age with us. 
We enter this life according to our acts in the 
mortal life. If we have advanced and grown 
we have gained so much when entering this 
life, but if we are hampered by physical ills 
or physical infirmities, or perhaps some may 
inherit imbecility or something of that kind, 
when the spirit leaves the body it enters this 
life and grows, in a sense, as a child. It rests, 



WITH MRS. PIPER 97 

it is released. The moment it is released from 
its body it assumes a condition of happiness, 
as it were. There is a peacefulness about it 
that permeates the whole spirit, and a certain 
power of understanding, and then it advances 
and grows until we are — we might put the 
age, for your understanding, to fifty, and we 
are never older than that in spirit. 

(You mean never older than about what we 
think of as fifty?) 

Yes. The body grows old simply but the 
spirit never grows old. The spirit remains 
young and beautiful always. No matter 
whether the man has passed from the earthly 
life through senile decay or through accident 
in youth, that makes no difference; the spirit 
is young always. But the conditions of the 
spirit and its happiness does [do] depend some- 
what upon his advancement and growth and 
understanding and desires of right and wrong 
in the physical life. 

(Well, supposing I have a friend now who 
goes over there, who did not think much of 
spiritual development here, could he be where 
he could see and talk with you, for instance, 
or would he be in a lower plane?) 

Well, he would be — for your understand- 
ing — he would be in a somewhat lower plane 
upon entering this life, but if he has a great 



98 PAST AND PRESENT 

desire to reach me there are certain conditions 
through which he must pass in order for that 
desire to be accomplished, and if he lives ac- 
cording to the restriction and the laws which 
are mapped out for him here, then he might 
be able to see me in what you might term a 
few days. Then his desire would be fulfilled 
and he would be made happier in consequence. 

(Now, General — ) 

Yes, I hear every word you say, and you 
have the faculty of speaking slowly and dis- 
tinctly. 

(Yes. When you went away, before your 
body was put in the earth, I was called by 
the Light known as Mrs. S. I went there 
after your body was put away, but she told 
me — that is, her control, her spirit guide told 
me — that the day you died — you passed out 
in the morning of our day here, and she said 
that you might have been around that day but 
she was so busy she did not notice you, but 
at night you were there and you had on such 
an anxious face that she had to listen to you, 
and you kept saying, " Send for Anne, send for 
Anne." Then when I went a few days later 
and talked with her she talked as if you were 
really there. Well, she said of course you did 
not put it in words, but she expressed the feel- 
ing. Now do you know anything at all about 



WITH MRS. PIPER 99 

that, or were you around, or could you have 
been around, or could you have called me in 
that way? This is a Light to whom you went 
once with me when in the physical body.) 

[The psychic known as Mrs. S. sent for me 
as explained above, asking if I would like a 
sitting, feeling that she ought to comply with 
the request of her control, though she had 
never before offered me a sitting simply because 
her control desired it, and never has since. Al- 
though she had seen in the papers an an- 
nouncement of the death of my friend, she 
assured me that up to that time she did not 
know that I had been associated with him in 
business, having the impression that my spe- 
cial work was to assist Dr. Hodgson. On the 
occasion when the General accompanied me 
to a sitting with her, several years before his 
death, she was not told who he was, and was 
not acquainted with him.] 

Well, I remember after leaving my body, 
the first thing I thought of after leaving the 
body, after passing through this ether which 
I described and beyond the veil — that is, on 
our side of the veil, into this world — the first 
thing I thought of was, " Where is Anne? I 
will go and find her." I turned immediately 
and looked back into the physical world, into 
the material world, looked at the physical 



100 PAST AND PRESENT 

body, saw it like so much earth, and I saw 
you terribly distressed, as it seemed to me, and 
your spirit seemed very downcast and de- 
pressed, and I tried to reach you and was very 
anxious to do so and very anxious to make 
myself understood by you, and if she saw me 
she was probably true in saying it, because 
that was the first thing I remember of doing; 
and the first thought that crossed my mind 
was, " I will go and find Anne wherever she 
may be and tell her that I am still living and 
going on into the eternal life." Therefore I 
cannot contradict or disclaim her veracity. 

[It was not his habit to call me " Anne " 
when living, though it is the habit of returning 
spirits to call their friends by their Christian 
names.] 

(Now will you come to me as well as you 
can whenever I go to see her, and do you think 
it would be well for me to go there occasion- 
ally?) 

Yes, once in a while, but I have learned 
from Imperator, who knows all there is to 
know and prepares his messengers to give such 
light as he deems that they are fitted to give, — 
he says too frequent communication on our 
side is not wise, and it is wiser for the spirit 
to store up its knowledge and learn all the con- 
ditions of its life and then return occasionally, 



WITH MRS. PIPER 101 

imparting that knowledge to his friend on the 
earthly side occasionally, but not too fre- 
quently, as the spirit loses by too frequent com- 
munication. 

(I see.) 

And it is not well for his best development. 

[I tell him something about his old home.] 

(I am going out there the evening preceding 
the fourth Sabbath from now, if I can. I am 
going to listen to the sound of your voice 
through the phonograph — ) 

A speech? 

(Yes. Do you remember the phono- 
graph?) 

Yes, I do. 

(There were some of your talks preserved. 
There were the remarks of Colonel Ingersoll 
at the burial of his brother, there was George 
Eliot's " Choir Invisible," there was Bryant s 
11 Flood of Years." Now I am going to listen 
to that for the first time since you went away, 
and I want you to stand right beside me all the 
time, and then when I come here again you can 
tell me about it.) 

I shall be delighted. That will give me 
greater happiness than anything you could ask 
me. 

[Unfortunately the phonograph was out of 
order when I made my visit.] 



102 PAST AND PRESENT 

(Can you stay a while longer?) 

Yes, I am listening. 

[There is a little talk here about a sister in 
the body.] 

You have a sister here in this world whom 
I have met. 

(What is her name, do you know?) 

No, — Hiram knows; at the moment I could 
not tell you, but he knows, and perhaps Rector 
will tell you what her name is. I remember I 
was introduced to her some time ago, and she is 
a beautiful spirit. 

[This refers to an older sister, named 
Laura, who died in 1881, thirteen years be- 
fore I became acquainted with my communica- 
tor.] 

Then I have met your father. He was a 
peculiar man, wasn't he? 

[Brief talk about my own family.] 

I like your father. He is a very strong in- 
dividuality, and he made his mistakes like other 
men in the earthly world, but he is a true spirit 
and he loves you all dearly. 

[My father was " peculiar," a " strong in- 
dividuality," and " made mistakes." He 
passed out four years before I knew my com- 
municator.] 

(Was your mother your guiding spirit all 
through your life here?) 



WITH MRS. PIPER 103 

Yes, and a dear one she was. 

(Did you recognize her as soon as you saw 
her?) 

She helped me, she showed me the way, she 
stood at my chair, the chair I used to sit in, 
she stood beside me when I passed out. 

(Does she know me?) 

Yes, you may rest assured that if I have had 
anything to do about it she does know you. 

• ••••• 
[In speaking of my private work, I say:] 
(You must not get discouraged if I get dis- 
couraged, will you?) 

Not at all. That is not like me, is it? 
Didn't I have courage to the last? Ask me 
all you wish. My thoughts keep clear, as you 
ask your questions so clearly and beautifully 
that they are not confusing to me. If you 
were to say, " Now, General, I want you to find 
a name for me, get it now if you can," — in 
searching for that name, or switching my 
thoughts from the track on which they are flow- 
ing at the present time, over which they are 
flowing, it would confuse me so that I should 
lose the whole thread of my individuality and 
thought. 

• ••••• 
The moment I entered this life I was told 

by Imperator; " You have just opened your 



104 PAST AND PRESENT 

life and your life is in the beginning. You 
have much to do with a friend whom you have 
in a sense left behind." . . . Then it dawned 
upon me what he meant. I said: "I know 
what you mean; you refer to the actual truth of 
a vague idea; it is going to be a reality," — an 
idea which crossed my mind before my illness. 
It passed through my mind, the thought, before 
my illness, as I loved poetry, reading books, 
like yourself, everything, — it crossed my mind 
many times, and the desire that I might be 
qualified to write. When I entered this life 
Imperator pointed those things out to me. He 
made it clear to me that it was possible for me 
to return and help you and that we might do 
this thing together. 

Now of course I cannot say how long the 
Light will remain in the body, or what the 
conditions are surrounding the Light, but I do 
know this, that conjointly and together on 
earth they have prayed and are praying and 
giving peace and restriction to the Light for 
a few who are privileged to use it and receive 
messages through it. Therefore I am one who 
is privileged, for which I am most grateful. 

(Of course I do not want this wholly for 
my selfish pleasure. I want it to be of some use 
to the world, my coming here to see you.) 

It should be, and if others would think like- 



WITH MRS. PIPER 105 

wise there would not be such a vague mystery 
about it all, as I used to think when I was in 
the body; there was a vague sort of unknow- 
able mystery. 

(The time is passing. I must not keep you 
too long.) 

I must not remain too long, but Rector stands 
here ready to take me away, to assist me out, 
that no harm may befall the instrument through 
which I work. 

• ••••• 
Tell me about little Augustus. 

(Augustus ? Which one ? ) 
I mean the little fellow, the one they called 
— it is not really his name. 

(Oh he is all right, very pretty.) 

• ••••• 
But they call me now and I must go. I 

must not abuse my privileges. God bless you 
and be with you. 

(Good-by.) 

You know I am Martin? 

(Oh, yes!) 

Close 

SITTING OF MARCH 1 3, 1905 

[There is very little that can be quoted from 
this sitting. It is a mixture of advice, proph- 
ecy, encouragement and reproof, on the part 



106 PAST AND PRESENT 

of both Rector and my communicator, relating 
to the carrying on of my work and to my con- 
dition of mind generally. Some of the remarks 
of my communicator are, however, so charac- 
teristically vigorous that I cannot refrain from 
giving a few of them as disconnected extracts.] 

The General 

Well, well, well ! Will wonders ever cease ! 
Is that you? 

(Why, yes, don't you know me?) 

Well, I guess I do. 

(Is this you, General?) 

Yes, that is right. 

• ••••• 

I seem sometimes to see your fits of dis- 
couragement. 

(Yes.) 

I do not like it. I passed through life, I 
think, with a brave and a stout heart. Many 
disappointments and trials came to my life, 
but I never relinquished my hold, the hold upon 
my faith and trust and hope, all through my 
life, did I? 

(No, I think not.) 

[He had a faith of some kind, which car- 
ried him through to the very end without com- 
plaint.] 



WITH MRS. PIPER 107 

Now I called upon these helpers and these 
holy fathers to bring you here that we might 
clear up some of these little cobwebs in your 
brain. 

(Well, clear them up, I wish you would.) 
• • • • • • 

I dislike the sort of discontented thoughts. 
I dislike the feeling that there is no time, and 
a waste of energy, a waste of life, a waste of 
material, a waste of everything. Now that is 
not true at all. 

...... 

I thought you were an idiot, in a sense, be- 
cause you believed in the eternal life, but how 
dense my mind was, how weak, how unchari- 
table ! But you will forgive me, you do for- 
give me? 

(Yes.) 

You understand, but it was you that were 
wise and I was weak, yet I was your friend. 

(I know that, General.) 

I am your friend to-day. I look the same, 
and if your spiritual eyes could be opened you 
would see me standing here registering my 
thoughts through the ether with which this re- 
ceptacle is filled. 

...... 

I can't have any thoughts of discourage- 
ment. Life is too serious, it is too beautiful, 



108 PAST AND PRESENT 

too strong, too great a thing to allow the 
thoughts of discouragement to enter such a 
brain as yours. I am astonished! I am as- 
tonished! "Oh," I said, "if I only get hold 
of her again I shall picture life as it really 
is and not as she thinks." What do you sup- 
pose you were created for? What do you sup- 
pose you were put into the earthly life for? 
You have not half carried out your mission. 
It is only in the beginning, and it is a useless 
waste of thought for you to think otherwise. 
Are you going to profit by what I am telling 
you? 

(Yes, indeed.) 

• ••••• 

I don't know whether I was a good preacher 
or not, but however, I know one thing, you 
usually profited by my advice, and I think you 
will do it now. In any case I shall watch you 
and I shall reach you now by sending you a 
message and you will know how things are 
turning. 

[In omitted portion he speaks of his inten- 
tion of sending a message occasionally 
" through that gentleman that comes here," 
meaning, of course, Dr. Hodgson.] 

Why, the idea of a . . . physically well 
woman of your years and experience getting 
into such a state of mind! Why, it is dread- 



WITH MRS. PIPER 109 

ful, and if there was no charity in the world 
there would be no love, and if there was no love 
there would be no life, do you know that? 
And without — do you remember somewhere 
in the book we used to call the Bible it says un- 
less ye have charity? 

(Yes.) 

Can you quote it? 

(" Unless ye have charity ye shall be as 
sounding brass and tinkling cymbals, " I think.) 

Yes, now register that in your mind. 
• •«••« 

(Do you suppose you will be able to come 
here again this season?) 

Oh, yes, I think so. The time, I don't know 
about that. You will have to ask them, and 
they will give you some definite idea. That 
is not in my hands. I only know that when 
the Light is burning and I see the Light, and 
the ether from our world is sufficiently clear, I 
know I can enter it and speak with you, which 
is a perfect delight. That makes our life on 
this side complete and perfect. You under- 
stand that. Now I want you to talk to me, 
but I did feel, oh if I could only reach you 
once more. 

(Yes. Wait a minute. You know that the 
time has got to be short this morning, don't 
you?) 



110 PAST AND PRESENT 

Short? What do you mean? 

(Why, we can only have about half the time 
that we usually have, because the Light has 
not been in a good condition in the physical, 
and — is Rector there by you?) 

Yes, what shall I say to him? You can 
see that the hands are always going out to us 
in touch. We are never left alone, I am never 
left alone when I am speaking with you. Im- 
perator comes and goes, keeps coming and go- 
ing, to see that all is going on well, and Rector 
or Prudens, some of them stand here and watch 
me to see how I get along, and if I fail for 
words or light they supply it. It comes over 
a line. Say what you want to. I think it is a 
pity to have you distressed about the time, but 
I don't know about these conditions so much, 
about the earthly side, but you will have to 
ask them, I think. 

(Well, now I have been ordered to tell Rec- 
tor that three-quarters of the time has gone 
and he will have only sixteen minutes more 
and then I shall have to leave, and if I do not 
I will not be allowed to come again. Do you 
understand that?) 

You mean to say that I must go now? 

(No, but I want you to tell Rector, who is 
there, just what I have said, will you?) 

I will speak to him — just one minute. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 111 

[Very brief pause. Evidently speaking to 
Rector. Lips moving slightly.] 

Well, what do you think he says? 

(I don't know.) 

Why, he says he does not see how he can 
open and close the Light in so short a time as 
that. 

[I explain a little further the necessity for 
being brief, and there is a little more talk.] 

(Well now, General, I am afraid you will 
have to go.) 

[Still more talk.] 

(Now you will have to go, you will have to 
go, — good-by.) 

Don't say good-by to me ! I am going out 
and I will stand aside right here. 

[Rector returns for a few moments.] 

Close 

SITTING OF APRIL 19, 1905 

[This sitting was largely taken up with mat- 
ters pertaining to my own family, one member 
of my family being very ill at the time. I had 
clear communications from my father and from 
my sister Laura, mentioned in sitting of Dec. 
20, 1904. It seemed to me that Laura, for 
the first and only time, spoke directly through 
the machine, so called, — that is, spoke directly 
to Rector, who repeated her words. For she 



112 PAST AND PRESENT 

seemed surprised at the ease with which com- 
munication could be carried on, and said: " I 
want to tell you how clear I am, and what a 
perfectly clear line I am working over. I can 
see so much better than I ever did before. " 
Upon this Rector immediately interjected the 
following remark: "I am going to say this, 
that I have never, I think, seen the Light clearer 
than it is this day." When I addressed my 
sister saying: " Now, Laura," she interrupted 
with: U I hear your voice like a trumpet." 
When I asked her to take a message to my 
father, she said: " I don't know, — if I could 
turn round and go out just a little distance on 
this cord I could bring him here. I will go 
and see." And then my father himself seemed 
to speak a few words directly. Other com- 
municators were somewhat crowded out by rela- 
tives on this occasion.] 

The General 

[In speaking about my coming summer vaca- 
tion, I say:] 

(How about Poland Spring?) 

Oh! [apparently laughing] Well, could 
you go there? 

(I could go there for a short time. I think 
I will try and arrange to go to Greenacre a 
short time and then go to your old stamping 



WITH MRS. PIPER 113 

ground, Poland Spring, where the water is, and 
the woods.) 

And the Poland Spring House, you remem- 
ber? 

(Yes.) 

Oh, I know so well. These old haunts last 
in my memory even in the spiritual world, 
The only thing I regret is the absolute im- 
becility on my part of the truth of an eternal 
life, but sometimes we have not the keenest 
spiritual perception into the higher things 
while in the mortal body, especially when the 
mind is troubled and disturbed with all that the 
earthly world places before us, and while life 
[lasts] we have not the time, perhaps, or the 
keen appreciation, and I may say apprehension, 
of the possibilities of the future. Therefore I 
made my mistakes in that line, — not exactly 
mistakes, but I lost a great deaL 

(Yes.) 

But my life was a busy one, as you know. 
Tell me about — how is little Gus, and Everett, 
and the children and all? They are doing 
splendidly, aren't they? 

(Well, I think they are.) 

• ••••• 

(Do you think I will not be able to come 
again this season?) 

Well, I am not so sure. They said : " Now 



114 PAST AND PRESENT 

if you want to talk with your friend again we 
shall give you the privilege of doing it and the 
opportunity will present itself immediately/ 5 
and then they said: " We will appoint the 
third day," and so on, and then they made it 
known to somebody in the body, and they said : 
" Because we cannot at the moment see the 
probability of it again." But if it is possible 
and you are called for, you know you have got 
to come. 

(I gave up a good deal this time to come.) 

Yes, I know, but it could not be avoided, 
and it was better so, as you can see. And 
haven't you found them very clear to-day? 

(Yes, very.) 

And I myself, the only thing I regret is that 
I have to cease to speak. . . . Now I am go- 
ing. I am not going to say good-by, because I 
hate the word. 

Close 

SITTING OF JUNE 21, 1905 

The General 
• ••••• 

What is life is love, and what is love is life, 
and what is life and love is spirit. I have 
called you here again. I have felt that I 
could not allow the Light to close without 
meeting you once more. . , . You have freed 



WITH MRS. PIPER 115 

me, did you know it? Nothing on the earthly 
side hampers or troubles me in the least. I am 
as free as it is possible for a spirit to be. 
• ••••• 

Your father sends a great deal of love to 
you, and also your sister. She is so much 
freer since the last conversation with you here 
that she is the happiest girl you ever saw. 
You have helped them greatly by coming here. 
You have no idea of the relief to the spirit 
these communications give. 

(Give my love to them both.) 

I understand that they are going to make 
better conditions after they return. 

["They" means the spirits in charge. 
" After they return " means after the vacation 
season.] 

I understand that Imperator has made special 
arrangements — do you know what they call an 
hour ? 

(Yes.) 

They are going to prolong it an hour and a 
quarter at the very least, and they are going 
to make the earthly friend sign to their ar- 
rangements — 

[" Earthly friend " is the expression which 
was commonly used by the trance personalities 
in referring specifically to Dr. Hodgson.] 



116 PAST AND PRESENT 

— because right in the middle of conversa- 
tion, sometimes when the best sentiments are 
to be given, the Light is shut off, and this is 
not quite right. I lose the counts of time, only 
that the man who has charge — 

(Hodgson?) 

— Hodgson, he keeps talking about hours 
and fifteen minutes, hours and three-quarters, 
and so on, and that keeps it fresh in the mem- 
ories of the controls. 

• ••••• 

(Tell Rector that there are fifteen minutes 
— the rule.) 

Who says that? 

(Hodgson says that.) 

[Meaning that I had been directed to bring 
the sitting to a close at a certain time.] 

Does he? Well, he is a good fellow. He 
receives much help. I will tell you a secret — 
he is inclined to be jealous, a little bit hostile 
if he cannot have his way, but they manage 
him over here beautifully. He knows that 
whatever they say is right and he must obey, 
if we return. Do you know that I feel some- 
times it is possible that we may not get at this 
Light, and then what shall we do? Impera- 
tor has been trying to make rules and regula- 
tions that when the Light is dim and unsatis- 
factory he will only see those who really 



WITH MRS. PIPER 117 

deserve and let the testing go, fearing that the 
Light may give way entirely. But at the pres- 
ent time through his prayers Jie has kept it 
very well and done well. Does not that in 
itself show the power of spirit? 

• ••••• 

Close 

SITTING OF DECEMBER 20, 1905 

The General 

Well, are you really here again? I see, I 
hear, I understand. Your spirit looks clearer 
to me. Are you not happier? 

(This is the General, is it not?) 

Yes, and no one else. 

• «•••• 

(I want you to understand, and Rector and 
all of them, that I fully and most thoroughly 
appreciate the privilege of coming here to see 
you.) 

Divine Providence governeth all things well, 
and as I must say, in harmony with these good 
friends here, that if you have faith and trust, 
all things are mapped out for good and will be 
seen by yourself as being managed by the Un- 
seen, in the main. 

(Yes.) 

You understand? 

(Yes.) 



118 PAST AND PRESENT 

And what is God's will, will be done. There- 
fore your coming here is a privilege to us as 
well as to yourself, and it is in obedience to His 
will. 

[" Obedience," stumblingly, first, then 
" obeyance " or " abeyance."] 

(Yes.) 

How can we manage it otherwise? What 
can we do when you are summoned? 

(You may be sure I shall be on hand.) 

And the way will be opened for you. Let 
me speak on, because we are limited on our 
Light. That is, the power gives out. ... I 
am very anxious, since I have learned so much 
about this beautiful life and realize the truth 
and reality of it by having the actual experi- 
ence, that the world should through your hand 
and brain be made cognizant in part of the 
unfoldment, of the true development of the 
soul after it leaves its environment; that it is 
an active consciousness, that it is in the state 
of higher development, that it is able to reach 
the physical plane and act through such voices 
as your own, we would say, to give expression 
and utterance to the truth and reality of in 
part what this life contains. Is that clear to 
you? 

(Yes. Well, of course I cannot know about 
your life except as you give it to me.) 



WITH MRS. PIPER 119 

But through your own unfoldment, as you 
say, you receive constantly help and impres- 
sions from me in this life. 

(Yes.) 

You cannot work alone without this help 
which you receive perhaps unconsciously to 
yourself, yet not unconsciously to — your sub- 
conscious mind receives the impressions which 
I give you and they are unfolded through the 
conscious mind. Therefore you give expres- 
sion to the very things which I impress your 
mind with. 

• • • • • • 

Tell me about the boy. 

(Well, what do you see about him?) 

[I have in mind a nephew of mine, who lives 
in California, in regard to whom I have had 
many communications, but his reply indicates 
that he is inquiring about his own boy, and I 
say:] 

(Do you mean my boy or yours?) 

I mean mine. ... In regard to your boy, 
he is a long distance in the earthly world, is he 
not? 

[This thought was evidently suggested by 
something which was said about his own boy 
being nearer to me.] 

And is that not his child? 

(What child?) 



120 PAST AND PRESENT 

Has he not a child or two ? 

(He has one, or has had one.) 

Is this not his? 

(Where is it?) 

Why, isn't it here? Isn't this Max's boy? 
His name is Plumb. 

[My nephew's name] 

(Well, that is his child, yes.) 

Well, I wanted to tell you about him, be- 
cause he came up to me, and as I found him I 
said, " Why, this child certainly belongs to 
my friend in the body," because he was so con- 
stantly — do you remember a spirit named 
Laura ? 

(Yes, my sister.) 

Yes, with her. 

(Well, is it my sister, or some one else named 
Laura?) 

Yes, it is another, it is somebody else, but I 
told you about her, did I not? 

(I think it must be some relation. I wish 
you could see.) 

Well, they are both here, the lady and the 
child. And the child leaving the body was a 
great disappointment to him, but it was better 
for the child and infinitely better for him and 
for the mother. 

(Why?) 

Because the developments would have been 



WITH MRS. PIPER 121 

very painful. God knows best, and to unfold 
His truths would take me a long time. 

(Well, we won't try now. Is that my grand- 
mother who has the baby?) 

Yes, it is your sister's grandmother — that 
would be yours, of course, certainly — well, 
you know we look at the connections here. 
She is an elderly lady, an elderly lady, but in 
the spirit no one is elderly. Perhaps you can 
understand contradictory statements, if possible. 
Her name was Laura. 

(Yes, that is it.) 

She is very much attached to that child. 

(Well, I have heard through another Light 
that this grandmother of mine had this child. 
Now have you seen me with that Light lately 
at all?) 

Yes, yes — [quite eagerly] — what Light 
was that? I have been trying to give you a 
password. 

(At that time?) 

Yes. You did not seem to understand it 
some way. 

[This child, a babe of nine months whom I 
had never seen, died Sept. 25, 1905, three 
months previous to date of this sitting, no sit- 
ting with Mrs. Piper having taken place in the 
interim, and this is the first reference by her 
to it. On Dec. 8 of this same month, less 



122 PAST AND PRESENT 

than two weeks previous to date of this sitting, 

I had a sitting with the psychic known as Mrs. 
S., who told me that this child was with my 
grandmother, and that my grandmother and 
my communicator were acquaintances and 
friends. I took it to be my mother's mother, 
as my father's mother died when I was a mere 
child. My mother's mother I knew well, as 
she did not pass away until I had grown to be 
a young woman. She was a reader of books 
on Spiritism and was much interested in the sub- 
ject, though she had few sympathizers among 
her own friends. She is the grandmother who 
would be most likely to have the child, and 
her name was Laura. 

It will be seen that when my communicator 
asks: " Do you remember a spirit named 
Laura," I immediately reply: " Yes, my sis- 
ter," the sister being the first thought in my 
mind. This positive reply might well have 
switched my communicator's ideas off the right 
track, but when I say: " Is it my sister, or 
some one else named Laura?" he replies: 

II Yes, it is another, it is somebody else, but I 
told you about her, did I not?" I do not 
know to what this " I told you about her ' 
can possibly refer, unless it means that my 
communicator was actually present at my sit- 
ting with Mrs. S. two weeks before, and that 



WITH MRS. PIPER 123 

he was the one who impressed it upon the psy- 
chic to assure me that the child was with my 
grandmother.] 

But I wanted to tell you that this little child 
is very happy and is in a home of its own with 
these people and that they are taking good 
care of it, and that there is nothing lost. 

(You tell both those Lauras that I am much 
pleased to know that the child is with them 
and will so report to the parents.) 

That is right. 

• ••••• 

Why, spirit, spirit travels, remains con- 
scious, feels out to its friends, reaches them 
on the earthly side, but there are some things 
which its memory cannot and does not wish to 
retain. There are pages in every book of life 
which the spirit when it leaves closes that book 
in the mortal life, it would like to forget, and 
so it does. Therefore it is happier. 

(General, are you in a sort of zone around 
the atmosphere of this earth, and can you go 
to other planets and stars if you w T ish?) 

Yes, certainly, and now there is a case here 
which has been very peculiar and perhaps has 
been commented upon in the mortal body — 
doubtless it has, because I have seen this man 
struggling here and then I have seen him de- 
part suddenly. He would come to the Light 



124 PAST AND PRESENT 

and the Light would not be open, and he would 
take his departure and go way off to another 
country. His name is Myers, or Myer. 

[I think my communicator in life knew noth- 
ing about F. W. H. Myers, of England, who 
died in 1901, the year preceding that in which 
my communicator died.] 

And he comes here, he finds the Light un- 
open — a very active, brilliant, fine man, keen 
perceptions, finest type of mind — and he 
comes here, he finds the Light not burning, he 
departs, he goes and looks after his family — 
he has a family in the mortal body — he goes 
to find them and remains with them, and often- 
times when the Light is burning he fails to ap- 
pear, but you can understand that because of 
his absence from the Light and being among 
those he loves. 

(Well, does he go to other worlds?) 

He goes to other worlds and other planets. 
He is constantly studying — he is a great 
student — he is studying the conditions and 
the changes and the whys and the wherefores 
of communication, and the laws of life in the 
spirit, in the body, and the ways of God and 
the ways of man and spirit in general. 

(Now I am afraid you will have to go.) 

Shall I have to go? — 

(Tell Rector—) 



WITH MRS. PIPER 125 

— but with you I shall be — 
(Tell Rector—) 

— the way will be open when I can return 
again soon and finish my conversation, for I 
have much to tell you which I cannot utter to- 
day. 

Close 

Note. The sitting took place on the morn- 
ing of the day on which Richard Hodgson 
died. His death occurred in the late after- 
noon or early evening. 

SITTING OF APRIL 1 7, 1906 

[This sitting took place in my own private 
room, near Copley square, Boston. The 
" earthly friend " means Dr. Hodgson.] 

The General 

Hello, hello, hello! Well, well, well! 
What have you got to say to me? 

(Who is this?) 

Well, well, well! Hello, Anne! Where 
did you come from? Where did you come 
from? I should like to know where we are, 
where you are, where we all are, where I am. 
Well, well, well ! I am the General. Oh, 
dear ! Oh, dear ! And you did not know me, 



126 PAST AND PRESENT 

did you? Well, I never thought the time 
would come when you would not know me. 

(Well, wait a minute, General.) 

What are you doing, writing? 

(Yes.) 

Oh, I see. Well, well, well, you were al- 
ways writing. Were you ever doing anything 
else? 

(Now, General — ) 

Yes, yes ! 

Tell me not in mournful numbers, 

Life is but an empty dream, 

And the soul is dead that slumbers, 

And things are not what they seem. 

Life is real, life is earnest, 

And the grave is not its goal ; 

Not enjoyment and not sorrow, 

Was not — no — 

Dust thou art, to dust returnest, 

Was not spoken of the soul. 

(You have not forgotten your poetry, have 
you?) 

No, and I never shall. 

(General — ) 

Yes? 

It matters not how straight the gate, 
How charged with punishments the scroll ; 
I am master of my fate, 
I am captain of my soul. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 127 

That is not original, but I love it. 

(Now, General, do you know you spoke so 
much like the earthly friend when you first 
came — ) 

Well, he was right beside me, and he was 
so determined that he would speak first, I was 
trying to see if I could not get him to give his 
consent to let me, without him, and he first en- 
tered and then he stepped aside and let 
me enter, and that was how that happened 
to be. 

(Then that is the reason I did not quite rec- 
ognize you at first.) 

Well, I forgave you long ago. I don't lay 
that up against you. I know it is difficult be- 
cause you cannot see me. You see, being a 
spirit, I am so fine, my ethereal body is fine and 
so finely constructed and all, that you cannot 
see it with your mortal eye, but with your 
spiritual eye you could see me plainly. Are 
the children all well? Are you well? Busy? 
Busy as a bee. 

(Well, wait a moment, General. I am sorry 

I cannot talk faster — ) 

Talk and write too? Well, the body has its 
limitations, you know. 

(Yes, I guess that is so. Now you said, 

II where are we all." Now I want to know if 



128 PAST AND PRESENT 

you know where you are, actually are, in this 
spot this moment.) 

At the present moment ? * 

(Yes.) 

Well, may I look around a bit and see? 

(Yes.) 

Well, now just give me time. 

[Fingers of hand touch my face, rest a mo- 
ment over my own hand, then find cabinet size 
photograph of my communicator in gilt frame 
which stands on table within easy reach. This 
occupies only a minute or two. Then emphati- 
cally:] 

Ha ! ha. You can't fool me ! I am in your 
room. That is myself } that is myself! 

(Yes.) < 

I am in your room. Well, I am more 
pleased than I can say. This is an unexpected 
pleasure and a perfect delight to me. Well, 
I must say I am happier for it. How does it 
happen? Perhaps you need not take the time 
to explain, perhaps somebody else will do it 
for me, but I am just a little bit in a quandary 
to know how it happened. Oh, what a fool 
I was ! I did not know, I did not realize that 
I should live again, and of all things I least' 
expected to return. 

(The daughters of the Light were ill, and 
so the Light has remained away from them, 



WITH MRS. PIPER 129 

and the meetings have been in this room of 
mine for some little time past.) 

That is the reason why I was so attracted 
here that I begged Rector to arrange for me 
to speak to you. 

(I see.) 

I had all I could do to keep from interrupt- 
ing each time lately. 

(Yes.) 

Well, that accounts for it. You see that 
helps me to understand. Thank you very 
much. 

[This was the first private sitting of my 
own which took place after the passing out of 
Dr. Hodgson, although I had attended many 
sittings during the winter as assistant and re- 
corder, and had been recognized by the Hodg- 
son personality, for it must be understood that 
Dr. Hodgson purported to return through Mrs. 
Piper very soon after his death. That is a 
matter, however, which I am leaving for others 
to present. But his manner of salutation was 
something like what appears in the opening re- 
marks of this sitting. In fact, the two per- 
sonalities seem to be blended, probably indis- 
tinguishably so to the reader to whom both 
men were strangers when in life, though the 
peculiar characteristics of each are quite ap- 
parent to me. The profusion of exclamatory 



130 PAST AND PRESENT 

greetings is Hodgsonian, while the irrepressible 
bursting into rythm is Martinian.] 

• • • • • • 
Now haven't you got anything to say to me? 

I want you to say lots of things to me. 

(You will let Hodgson come a few moments 
before — ) 

Oh, he is coming, you cannot get rid of him 
so easy. You know this is a great big tele- 
phone and I am speaking into it. 

(Explain it more, will you?) 

Yes, I will. The telephone is filled with 
ether from our world, and it is a receptacle, a 
vessel, and we blow into it just exactly as you 
would blow a bellows, the air through a bel- 
lows to an open fire, into an open fire, and then 
we attach a cord, an ethereal cord, to that and 
talk right over that cord right into the machine, 
and make this machine utter our thoughts. 

(I see.) 

• • • • • • 
(Now, General, — ) 

Hodgson is coming ! 

(Tell him to wait a moment.) 

Yes, good fellow, — I am glad to know him. 

[Dr. Hodgson and my communicator were 
not acquainted during life, though each knew 
something about the other.] 



WITH MRS. PIPER 131 

There is a lot more I wanted to say, but I 
am afraid I won't have the strength. 

(Well, the time is very nearly up, and I 
suppose I must speak with Hodgson. At any 
rate, I want to.) 

Well, he is going to, but I am going to see 
you again sometime. ... I suppose I must 
step aside. . . . This is the most wonderful 
thing in the world to-day. ... I must step 
aside and let this gentleman speak. Good-by. 
It is au revoir, not good-by. 

(Good-by, General.) 

[" This gentleman " means Dr. Hodgson, 
with whom I hold a brief conversation, which 
I have thought best not to insert.] 



Subliminal 

[When Mrs. Piper is coming out of trance 
there are brief remarks and broken utterances, 
some of them very clear, some of them in a 
whisper, some of them quite indistinct and 
wholly unintelligible. The appearance is as if 
she were taking a last look at spirits standing 
near, and as if these spirits, while she is re- 
turning to her body, were impressing upon her 
mind words and messages for her to repeat 
to the sitter. Some of her broken utterances 
also indicate her returning perception of her 



132 PAST AND PRESENT 

surroundings in the room where the sitting has 
taken place.] 

Getting dark. They are all going away. 

[Muttering something unintelligible] 

I wonder what Martin has his hand in it — 
General Martin is — I don't know you — 

[Looking up inquiringly] 

I can't hear you — 

[Making great effort to hear] 

What ? I am happier for it. She'll under- 
stand. It is all right with me. I hope it is 
with her. 

[It will be noted that "I am happier for it " 
is the same phrase as that used by my com- 
municator through the trance, as if he were re- 
peating to Mrs. Piper's returning spirit some 
of the same language used to me while she was 
unconscious of what was being transmitted 
through her organism.] 

Close 

SITTING OF JUNE 6, 1906 

[Permission had been given for my sister 
Grace, Mrs. Moore, to accompany me on this 
occasion. She was present at the opening of 
the sitting and at its close, as I wished her to 
see the medium enter and leave the trance state, 
and I think she had a few words with Rector.] 



WITH MRS. PIPER 133 

The General 

« 9 • • • • 

(I have copies of all that you have said to 
me here, and I do not think it will all be pub- 
lished by the Society, so that leaves the coast 
clear for me to publish something in my book, 
and I propose to do that, and speak of your 
life in Boston.) 

Very good. I should like that very much 
indeed, because I do not care now. I lived 
to know the truth, to understand the truth and 
to speak the truth, and the truth will live, 
and I am not ashamed of my name or any- 
thing associated or connected with it, and the 
truth will bear its weight throughout the uni- 
verse, and I think it is better to be frank and 
open and honest with the name. 

• ••••• 

I heard a little music in your room the other 
evening and I heard an instrument being 
played, and I sat in a large chair right near the 
table. You were apparently reclining. 

(Was somebody else making the music?) 

Yes, yes. It was your sister, I think. And 
you were reclining, and I was sitting in the large 
chair and listening. 

(That was lovely.) 



134 PAST AND PRESENT 

And I heard it all. And then I heard — 

(Do you want my sister to come in the room 
now?) 

I am afraid it will interrupt me. I heard 
" Old Oaken Bucket " plainly. 

(Was my sister playing that or was I?) 

You were playing it. 

(Well, that is one of my favorites.) 

Well, I don't know it at all. I know I heard 
it. I heard you play it. I caught the air. 
Then I heard her play a religious thing, relig- 
ious piece. 

(Now, General, wait a moment. My sis- 
ter is just outside. I think I will call her in, 
but you need not speak to her unless you wish.) 

I am afraid it will interrupt me. I thought 
it might interrupt my thoughts. 

(When I am alone in my room I sometimes 
sit down and play a little bit, and often play 
" The Old Oaken Bucket.") 

Yes, yes, I hear that. Well, I heard that. 
Then I heard another little one that sounded 
like " The Suwanee River." 

(I did not play it.) 

No, your sister. She played a few bars of 
it. And then I heard a waltz, a waltz being 
played. I think she has a very pretty touch, 
and I think she sings a little, doesn't she? 

(Oh, yes.) 



WITH MRS. PIPER 135 

But why doesn't she sing? I heard her hum- 
ming but not much singing to it. 

(Well, her throat troubles her a little now.) 

She is not well, but the spirit will improve 
the flesh. 

[I do not play much, and do not play often, 
but probably play " The Old Oaken Bucket " 
oftener than any other one piece. I did not 
play it on the evening referred to. This sit- 
ting took place on Wednesday. On the pre- 
ceding Friday evening I was in my room with 
my sister, Mrs. Moore, who was then visiting 
me, though she had not been with me for 
nearly a year prior to this visit. A friend of 
hers called, and during the evening my sister, 
who is very musical, sat down at the piano. 
I betook myself to a couch, decidedly reclin- 
ing. The friend sat in a small rocker, and 
the Morris chair, the largest chair in the room, 
which stood near the center table, was unoc- 
cupied. My sister's playing is noted among 
her friends for its remarkably pretty touch, 
and she has a way of humming at times when 
she does not feel able to sing. As I remem- 
ber this evening she sang in a low tone at first, 
and finally sang one or two songs in her nat- 
ural manner. She tells me that she played 
just a few strains of " The Suwanee River " on 
the evening in question, though I did not re- 



136 PAST AND PRESENT 

member it and could not have told that she 
did play it.] 

• • • • • • 

Close 

SITTING OF SEPTEMBER 26, 1906 

[There is on this occasion quite a long con- 
versation with Dr. Hodgson. This and Rec- 
tor's talk occupy the larger portion of the 
hour.] 

The General 

Here I am. I am delighted to see you. 
How are you ? 

( I am fine. Don't you think so ?) 

Good. Isn't that splendid! Yes, I think 
you are. I never saw you better. Did you 
ask your sister about that music? 

(Yes.) 

Well, wasn't I right? 

(Yes, you were. She played, " The Suwanee 
River " that night, but I did not know it.) 

Yes, and you often play " The Old Oaken 
Bucket?" 

(Yes.) 

Do you know that I am with you when your 
body is in repose and your spirit is floating 
around conversing with me? Do you remem- 



WITH MRS. PIPER 137 

ber it when you wake? What are you doing? 
Are you writing? 

(General, I have to write down every word. 
I wish I did not.) 

Why don't you split the difference and di- 
vide your mind? 

(Well, I will. It hinders me. I think I 
will drop it now.) 

I wish you would. You lose the personal- 
ity. 

[Which means that I discard paper and pen, 

sit close to Mrs. Piper, and have an easy, nat- 
ural conversation with my communicator.] 

Close 

SITTING OF AUGUST 5, 1907 

[The date of this sitting is a little out of 
season. Mrs. Piper had just returned from 
England and gave a few sittings before leav- 
ing Boston again to spend the remainder of 
the summer in the country.] 

The General 

Little rills make wider streamlets, 
Streamlets swell, the rivers grow; 

And they join the ocean billows, 
Onward, onward, as they go. 

Does that sound natural? 

(Yes. Will you say that once more?) 



138 PAST AND PRESENT 

[Verse repeated] 

(All right, that is natural. How do you do, 
General?) 

Well, how do you do? I do as I'm a mind 
to most of the time. 



Do you realize that even though I go on in 
life, progressing in this life, and go step by 
step, my spirit is improving, I still look back, 
and never a step forward do I go that I do 
not look back and live in pleasant memories al- 
ways of the old, olden days. ... I have 
enough sentiment in my nature which has be- 
come a part of myself and my spirit here that 
if I sound or seem sentimental you must over- 
look it, because it is a part of the spirit. 
(You cannot be too sentimental for me.) 
I know your nature, but I say that sentiment 
is a part, and a finer, higher part, of the spirit- 
ual life and its existence. And life is love and 
love is life, and life is love, therefore it is uni- 
versal. 



[In speaking about the mediumistic power 
of another psychic, he concludes by saying:] 

Well, ask Hodgson. He will tell you. He 
has been a great help to me over here, and he 
has been helping Myers all during the burning 



WITH MRS. PIPER 139 

of the Light. Perhaps you don't know what 
has been going on? 

(Not much.) 

Well, perhaps it is just as well if you don't. 
I don't know very much about it myself, only 
I know we are very pleased on this side. 

[This doubtless refers to the work of the 
season just closed. See Pr. S. P. R. Part 
LVII, Vol. XXII, October, 1908.] 

[Toward the close of the hour my communi- 
cator says :] 

But I am going to ask Hodgson what part 
of his reports he wants you to have and he 
will tell you. 

(The time is up.) 

I must let him come. 

(The time is up.) 

Well, he has got to speak to you, I can't 
help it. It is not good-by, only au revoir. 

[A brief talk with Dr. Hodgson follows, 
at the close of which he says : "God bless you, 
and stick to it. That is the advice of your old 
friend R. H."] 

Close 

SITTING OF .NOVEMBER 20, 1907 

[There is very little that can be quoted from 
this sitting. I held conversations with three 
communicators, and my old friend Hiram 



140 PAST AND PRESENT 

Hart sent a brief message of remembrance. 
More than twenty-four years have elapsed since 
he passed away. This is the occasion on which 
my communicator says that " delays are danger- 
ous " and he now wishes me to push my work 
along as rapidly as possible. While advising 
and urging me, he says :] 

The General 

You are a little bit stubborn, do you know 
it? You get an idea and you want to carry 
that idea, you analyze it, you say it over in 
your mind, and you are inclined to go back to 
the first idea. Sometimes the broadest and 
most reasonable minds are willing to add an 
idea to their oldest idea, and have two ideas 
instead of one. 

(Well, I hope I am.) 

[Further on he says:] 

Imperator calls you one of his children. I 
suppose you must be. 

(I am glad to know that.) 

Well, he watches over you with his all-see- 
ing eye and does not want you to fail or fall 
into error. 



Close 
[What follows is my final illustration of the 
running voice communications of this period.] 



WITH MRS. PIPER 141 

SITTING OF JUNE 1 7, 1908 

The General 
• ••••• 

You have heard of pearly gates and streets 
of pearl? Those were as real as any expres- 
sion which you may use in the physical life. 
More real. It is a fact, — there are streets of 
pearl, gates of pearl. 

(Just like our pearl?) 

It is similar. Yes, the comparison is so near 
that you could not mistake it for a moment. 
And our castles, our homes, are real. They 
are as real to us as yours are to you. Yours 
is simply the imitation, ours is the real. We 
have streets, we have gardens, we have homes, 
we have rivers, we have lakes. If we bathe in 
the river our garments are not wet, but still 
we are purified, we are cleansed. But the nat- 
ural hair — but entering it does not saturate 
our garments, and it does not wet what you call 
the hair. We come out and it is light and dry, 
the garments are dry, but the soul is purified by 
bathing in the waters. Is that clear to you? 
We walk about the lakes, we walk in the gar- 
dens, we meet friends, we commune with 
friends, we hear music, we hear sermons, and 
we pass our time glorifying God and living in 
His presence^ in a sense, — understanding what 



142 PAST AND PRESENT 

His hand hath created and what He has blessed 
us with, eternal life. 

(When you go out of your mansion and look 
up toward what would be our sky, what do you 
see?) 

We see above us, we see our world radiant, 
filled with light, a beautiful, soft moonlight, 
difficult for you to comprehend because it is so 
clear, so beautiful, so light. We do not see 
what you see — stars — but we see this beau- 
tiful moonlight above us, all round us. The 
air is scented with the most delicious perfume. 
It is so exquisitely delicate that it seems almost 
a part of our own existence, it is so beautiful, 
so delicate, and so real. And we see above us 
this beautiful light, and it is what you would 
call in your world the heavens. It is above 
us, far above us, and we see at times, we see — 
a face appears. It grows lighter at times, es- 
pecially when we are in a particularly happy 
state. The face appears over us and we know 
it is the face of Christ. We hear the swishing 
of the garment, as it were, and then it passes 
off and some one else receives the vision. 

(Do you ever see any other face like that 
in the heavens except that of Christ?) 

We see what you would call — there are 
saints administering to those who need help, 
or perhaps have just passed over, have not un- 



WITH MRS. PIPER 143 

derstood the conditions, and these saints appear 
to give them courage and to give them faith 
and to show them that this is everlasting and 
eternal life. I am not very good at preach- 
ing. 

(Then you do not have our beautiful firma- 
ment of stars at night?) 

We have what corresponds to your stars. 
There are rays, as it were, little flickering 
rays all through the firmament, all through the 
heavens. We see these little rays all about 
us, this beautiful figure passing, we see another 
face and then another as it passes. Why do 
we not come into closer proximity with them, 
as we say? Because they are superior even to 
ourselves, they have progressed, they have gone 
on to a higher, even, sphere than our own. 
That is, they are the controlling, the ruling 
forces, and govern our own life and our own 
world. Do you understand? 

(Yes.) 

A word of command, simply a hand is 
raised — we know its meaning, we understand 
it, we sense it as a little child would sense dan- 
ger, or a sensitive animal would sense danger. 
• *.... 

[The term " subliminal " as applied in the 
early years to utterances at the close of the 
trance I adopted from the reports of others.] 



144 PAST AND PRESENT 

Subliminal 

[I have not exact notes of what Mrs. Piper 
said on this occasion while coming out of 
trance, but I have a memorandum that she 
mentioned the names of nearly all my special 
friends on the Other Side, as if she were see- 
ing them: — Hiram Hart, the General, my 
sister Laura, my father, the baby, my grand- 
mother, Pickett. My grandmother holds the 
baby up and the baby sends love to its mother, 
and just then the General picked a rose and 
handed it to the baby, and the baby was pick- 
ing it to pieces. The psychic, gradually return- 
ing to consciousness, calls this one of the most 
beautiful sights she ever saw.] 

END OF PART I 



PART II 
THE PAST DECADE 



Ill 

PRELIMINARY 

While it is true that during the past decade 
communications through the Piper mediumship 
have been less frequent and less voluminous 
than in former years, I have thought that some 
brief narration regarding the normal person- 
ality of the medium and the changed character 
of her mediumship might be of interest, and 
certainly ought to be on record. 

Above all I have sought to bring out in its 
full light the remarkable fidelity of loved ones 
who have gone before, as exemplified by those 
individual spirits who have found themselves 
among the privileged ones having access to a 
special gateway of return. Years, decades, 
mean nothing to them, and apparently even 
their passing to a sphere in the spiritual world 
higher than that which they entered at death 
is no obstacle to the carrying out of their pur- 
pose, and, so long as their special gateway re- 
mains open and opportunity offers, so long will 
they continue to reiterate their assurances of 

sympathy and their promises of reunion. They 

147 



148 PAST AND PRESENT 

never forget. If this be true of those who are 
privileged to return, we may certainly infer 
that those who are not so privileged must also 
remain faithful to strong bonds of duty or of 
love. 

Notes of all sittings were written out at the 
time, and comments made while the subject 
matter was fresh in my mind, but in bringing 
the records up to date, and preparing them for 
publication I have taken the liberty to alter 
here and there these comments, to suit senti- 
ments that I may hold at the present time. 

During the years of the Great War and 
since, so many lives have been snuffed out sud- 
denly and seemingly before their time, lives 
given voluntarily to a cause or a principle, that 
in the popular mind, so it seems, death has 
really come to be only an incident in life. Dur- 
ing these years many individuals have received, 
through one channel or another, what to them 
were actual messages from their beloved dead, 
and there has come about a much more general 
acceptance of the idea of continuous life. The 
higher character and helpfulness of the com- 
munications have come to be the important 
thing, and there is possibly a proportionately 
lessened interest in strained search after proof, 
at least for proof of the only kind that will 
satisfy the mind which is determined despite 



WITH MRS. PIPER 149 

everything to remain skeptical. I believe there 
is to-day more than one scientific investigator, 
with reputation for deep thinking and clear 
exposition, who feels that cumulative evidential 
incidents, and even unverifiable matter which 
is strongly characteristic of the supposed com- 
municators, will in the long run virtually 
amount to proof. 

All communications recorded in Part II have 
come through the involuntary writing, the 
voice of the medium not being made use of by 
the controls, as was done in the earlier years. 

April, 1920. 



IV 

THE BOY HAROLD 
1908, 1909 

My last published report of extracts from 
reports of private sittings with Mrs, Piper was 
dated June 17, 1908. 

In order to show that the so-called " per- 
sonalities " or group of spirits communicating 
through the psychic have apparently continued 
their interest in my life, I will say that at a 
sitting which occurred on Dec. 16, 1908, the 
controlling spirit Rector, in a personal conver- 
sation, and in the midst of helpful suggestions 
relating to the uplift of life in general, said: 

" Remember the prophet speaks and says 
that when the Light is again on the other side 
you will meet it there." 

" On the other side " in this instance means 
on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, or in 
Europe. " Light " here and elsewhere in this 
volume means the organism of the psychic. 

I might say in passing that this was not the 
first time that the prophecy was made that I 

150 



WITH MRS. PIPER 151 

was to be in Europe with the Light. Not at 
all an improbable thing, yet something of which 
there was no immediate prospect at any time 
when the statement was made. At a sitting 
held on March 17, 1909, it was again stated 
that I was going to England, and that I would 
be there in company with the Light. 

On April 14, 1909, I was present at a writ- 
ing sitting as an assistant; that is, the sitter, 
although he had been personally acquainted 
with Mrs. Piper many years, was a stranger to 
her trance condition, and I was to help him 
read and interpret the automatic writing as it 
came, and to conduct the sitting generally, but 
was supposed to keep my own personality de- 
cidedly in the background. I had, however, an 
unusual experience at this sitting, and must give 
a brief account of it. 

There was great confusion at the opening. 
I assumed at the outset that whatever might 
come through the involuntary writing would be 
intended for the sitter, and I was trying to 
make something clear out of what did come 
at first, yet all the while Rector, the control, 
kept hearing the voice of another spirit, not 
connected with the sitter, calling insistently for 
recognition. This spirit was finally, in a flash, 
recognized by me as a nephew, a boy of nine- 
teen who had passed out of the body five days, 



152 PAST AND PRESENT 

or a little less than five whole days, previously. 
He accidentally shot himself with an old rickety 
gun while in the act of pulling the gun out of 
a rowboat from which he had himself just 
stepped. After the lead had entered his 
breast he exclaimed to his chum, who had been 
gunning on the water with him in another boat : 
" My God, Newt, I have shot myself." He 
then fell to the ground, was shortly removed 
to his home, and after several hours of uncon- 
sciousness passed away without speaking again. 
The following was written : 

"ANN calling it to me. Where is Annie? 
Please tell her I want to see her about my 
things." " Do you know who Addie is, Annie? 
Oh dear, what can I do to make it clear? 5 
" I want to tell Annie where I am, and this lady 
is trying to make you understand." 

The letters " H a r " were written, very 
large and clear, the only letters on the page. 
Then after the terminations " rie " and " ry v 
the whole word " Harold " was written very 
distinctly. 

Harold passed out of the body on April 9, I 
think in the early evening. The sitting took 
place on April 14 at half past 10 o'clock in 
the morning, making the time between the pas- 
sing out and the return less than five whole 
days. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 153 

His home was in the country a hundred 
miles or more from Boston, but I knew him 
well and had often been to the old homestead 
where he lived. Leaving out of account the 
theory, testified to by so many returning spirits, 
that a more or less extended period of coma 
or unconsciousness occurs in most instances im- 
mediately after passing out of the body, it does 
not seem to me at all strange that, with the 
many friends I have on the Other Side who are 
familiar with and are allowed at this gateway 
of return, Harold should so soon have been 
brought there to get a word through to me. 
He was to have been married shortly, and the 
future must have looked bright to him. 
11 Please tell her I want to see her about my 
things," and " I want to tell Annie where I 
am, 1 ' are remarks which would quite naturally 
be the first to occur to one of his age and in his 
circumstances. 

There are recorded instances in which 
young men or boys just entering upon manhood 
not only seem to be able to return in strength 
but are most eager to make the attempt if but 
the slightest opportunity is offered. 

On November 10, 1909, I had my last sit- 
ting prior to Mrs. Piper's departure for Eng- 
land for an indefinite stay. While I received 
several messages intended for persons outside 



154 PAST AND PRESENT 

of my own family, the sitting was on the whole 
a sort of personal farewell. 

The boy Harold put in another brief appear- 
ance, the message coming to me much more 
clearly than on his first return, this being a 
voice sitting. He referred to that first at- 
tempt, his lack of understanding, on account of 
his having just " come over "; said there was a 
man whom they called " the doctor " — Dr. 
Hodgson he thought — who told him to go 
and get a word to his aunt quickly. I was told 
that he suffered no pain in passing out, and that 
he was now studying about the stars with his 
grandpa. Harold was a baby when his grand- 
father (my father) died, but the latter, al- 
though not a professional, was a great lover of 
astronomy and was all his life studying the 
stars. It was his delight to take some younger 
person, usually one of his own children, out 
under the canopy of blue on an evening when 
the atmosphere was clear, and point out to him 
the constellations. It does not seem at all un- 
likely that he should have taken Harold under 
his wing as a student of the stars, even so soon 
after the boy's passing over. 



TEMPORARY CESSATION IN MRS. 
PIPER'S WORK 

NOVEMBER, 1909, TO NOVEMBER, 1911 

In November, 1909, Mrs. Piper and her 

daughters sailed for England, this being her 

third trip abroad. In the previous July she 
had written me from the country: 

" We do not look forward to going with any 
sort of pleasure, as we would much rather re- 
main here, and I am really tired of psychical 
research. When I think of all it means to 
break up and go under the strain of scientific 
investigation again, I simply feel as though I 
could not do it possibly." 

Poor management of her sittings for some 
time prior to this trip, the presence at the trance 
of persons who were inexperienced, unsym- 
pathetic, and not competent to handle the 
trance with the care and delicacy with which it 
should be handled, undoubtedly had much to 

155 



156 PAST AND PRESENT 

do with causing this reluctant feeling on her 
part. This is a subject, however, on the de- 
tails of which I do not care to enter at this 
time, as reference to it has already been made 
in other publications, and as I do not presume 
to be competent to pass final judgment on mat- 
ters of this kind. 

A letter from her dated Dec. 21, 1909, 
says: 

" At last after a most unpleasant voyage of 
twelve days' duration we are on terra firma and 
I for one feel like shouting just because we are 
all alive at this moment. We have the dearest 
little home that ever was. Three attempts at 
sittings have proved futile. Absolutely no 
trance or even suggestion of one." 

In the following January, 19 10, she wrote 
me that her physician had ordered a complete 
rest of six weeks. On March 26, 19 10, one 
of the daughters wrote that her mother was 
better, but had not begun to give sittings, and 
as late as June 3 of the same year the same 
daughter wrote that her mother had not been 
able to do anything for the Society all the 
previous winter. 

On January 12, 191 1, Mrs. Piper writes: 



WITH MRS. PIPER 157 

" Regarding my future work for the Society, 
I of course can say but little, as the power is 
not under my control. . . . But what am I to 
do but go on, doing the best I can, in the belief 
that all is well and ever will be? I of course 
do not know what lies in store for me in fu- 
ture. All I can say is, time will tell and we 
shall see. I am willing to do what God wills 
and gives me strength to do, whether it be this 
or some other work." 

I am offering the data in this chapter not as 
covering the full facts in the case, but simply 
to set forth the situation as it appeared from 
my own view-point, with the ocean between us, 
and in order to make the account of my per- 
sonal relation to Mrs. Piper and the phenomena 
produced through her a connected one. 

Many letters which I received from Mrs. 
Piper were purely personal and confidential, 
written with no thought of their ever falling 
under the eye of any person but myself. It is 
only upon my urgent request that she has con- 
sented to the publication of a few extracts 
from those letters, and none are published 
without that consent. 

She returned to America from England in 
November, 191 1, having done practically noth- 



158 PAST AND PRESENT 

ing for the Society during her stay of two years, 
although, as we shall see, the seeds of a new 
work were then sown. As for my own con- 
nection with the work, to outward appearances 
it had ceased, in spite of numerous prophecies 
to the contrary still awaiting fulfilment. 



VI 



AUTOMATIC WRITING WITHOUT 
TRANCE 

THE M. B. INCIDENT 
1911, 1912 

Other publications have given some account 
of the inception in Mrs. Piper, during her two 
years' stay in England, of the power mentioned 
in the previous chapter, to produce automatic 
writing while in the conscious state, or with- 
out going into the deep trance to which she 
had from the beginning been accustomed, and 
which had appeared to be a necessity in the 
case. I need not, therefore, attempt to de- 
scribe the writing, except to say that on casual 
glance it appears to be much like the script 
produced while in trance. But Mrs. Piper, 
instead of dropping her head on a pile 
of pillows and falling asleep, appears to 
be normally awake, and occasionally makes 
a remark, though at times her eyes have 
a dreamy, far-away look, as if she were 

159 



160 PAST AND PRESENT 

ab'out to, or at least could easily, slip into 
trance. While I am not prepared to say just 
how much or how little of what comes through 
her hand she is conscious of at the time, or re- 
members for any considerable period after- 
wards, preferring to leave discussion of that 
point to others and to confine myself to facts 
in my own experience, yet the series of incidents 
I am about to relate I consider very important 
as tending to show, and almost positively to 
prove, that much of what comes through she 
does not apprehend, unless we can assume the 
greatest dissembling on the part of several per- 
sons, which we assuredly cannot do of the par- 
ticular persons concerned. 1 

The initials M. B. should be remembered as 
those of a former sitter, 2 a lady well known in 
life to Richard Hodgson, of strong character, 
an active worker for the betterment of the un- 
fortunate, and withal a spiritually minded per- 
son, evidently standing high in the esteem of 
the trance personalities; not a special friend 
of the normal Mrs. Piper during the lifetime 
of Dr. Hodgson, but becoming such after his 
death. 

The initials E. A. F. should be remembered 
as those of a friend and associate worker with 

1 Dates mentioned should be carefully followed. 

2 Margaret Bancroft. See also pp. 220-21. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 161 

M. B., also familiar with psychical research and 
with the peculiar work of Mrs. Piper. 

Both these persons lived at a considerable 
distance from Boston, which has been my own 
residence for many years, as well as that of 
Mrs. Piper. 

Mrs. Piper landed in America from England 
on Nov. 8, 191 1, but, although my friendship 
with her had been of long standing, I was not 
at first apprised of this fact by her, and did not 
know where she had located until the 19th of 
the following January, 19 12. I did not even 
know of her landing at all until Nov. 23, being 
then informed in a letter written to me by 
M. 5. 

A few days before Christmas M. B. sent me 
a copy of a poem composed by her friend 
E. A. F., relating to Mrs. Piper; no doubt as- 
suming that I knew of Mrs. P.'s location, and 
would deliver it to her. On Dec. 22 I sent the 
poem, with a note of my own, to Mrs. Piper, 
thinking that the offering might be welcome at 
the Christmas season. I forwarded it by the 
hand of a relative of the family, as I did not 
then know her own residence. It appeared 
later that the messenger forgot to deliver it for 
Christmas, and it was not delivered until Dec. 
29. 

This poem follows : 



162 PAST AND PRESENT 

She gave herself that men might know? the truth. 
Her all she gave ; the glad years of her youth, 
The somber years that close life's earthly span ; 
She gave them all — an offering to Man. 
The pleasures women love she put aside; 
Her freedom she renounced ; she cast her pride 
Into the dust, and bore contempt and scorn 
With silent fortitude. She did not mourn 
Her loneliness ; no hardship was too great 
For her to bear. Her life was consecrate 
To that high service wherein all mankind 
In centuries to come will learn to find 
An answer to the primal Mystery 
Of Life and Death, and of Eternity. 

She gave no thought to praise or martyrdom, 
But stood prepared to meet whate'er might come 
In perfect faith. Her earthly self she placed 
In others' hands; unquestioning she faced 
The coming of the Darkness ; unafraid 
She watched the outer world grow dim and fade. 
And in her sleep, aloof from common things, 
Her soul awoke and stirred, then spread its wings 
And fled away to some celestial space 
Beyond the finite realm of time and place, 
Leaving her mortal frame, an empty shell 
Upon the shore of earth. The Sentinel 
Who guards the human clay, prepared and near, 
Straightway infilled the shell with life, and clear 
In voice prophetic or in lines soon conned, 
There came a message from the World Beyond. 

And when 'twas finished, like a tired bird, 
Her spirit fluttered back, a whispered word 



WITH MRS. PIPER 163 

Fell from her lips like some faint echoing 

From that far world to which her soul did cling 

As if unwilling to be bound afresh 

Within the prison of the weary flesh. 

And thus in Light and Shade her life was spent, 
Her body given as an instrument 
To Science, so that Man at length might see 
The Light that lies beyond the Mystery. 

ye who scoff, would ye pay such a price ? 
Would one among you make such sacrifice ? 

E. A. F. 

To go back a little. M. B. was taken seri- 
ously ill on the morning of December 21, 191 1, 
and died in the early morning of Jan. 3, 191 2. 

1 learned of the passing shortly after it oc- 
curred. 

On Jan. 19, 19 12, I received a note from 
Mrs. Piper herself, giving me her location in 
the city, and as soon as possible thereafter I 
called on her. I have not the date of this call, 
but it must have been that very evening or the 
following one, and it was upon this occasion 
that she informed me that she had developed 
the power of involuntary writing without 
trance. This was naturally a great surprise 
to me, for although I had heard one or two 
rumors that she had developed a new " con- 
trol," the possibility of involuntary writing 
while in her normal state had never even oc- 



164 PAST AND PRESENT 

curred to me. This need not seem strange, 
since in Mrs. Piper's case the depth of trance 
with apparent unconsciousness, as compared 
with that of other psychics, was something 
quite unusual, at least as far as my experience 
went. The idea at once flashed upon me, how- 
ever, that perhaps after all the foresight of the 
trance personalities was greater than we had 
supposed, and that neither Mrs. Piper's work 
nor my connection with it had really come to 
an end. All the while another psychic, one 
not known to the S. P. R., Mrs. K., who is 
supposed to have an Indian control, kept in- 
sisting that Mrs. Piper (referring to her not 
by name but by description and character) was 
to do more and even better work than she had 
yet done. This was told me at various times, 
even while Mrs. P. was in England. 

Under the peculiar conditions of severed re- 
lationship, delicate health, etc., existing at the 
time I was informed of the new kind of writ- 
ing, I did not then think best to seek any com- 
munications through Mrs. Piper, feeling that 
the writing could not and should not be in the 
least forced. This policy I have consistently 
and almost invariably followed up to the pres- 
ent time. 

To return to the very beginning of the year 
191 2, On learning of the passing of M. B. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 165 

I at once felt that it was highly important that 
I preserve silence on the subject when in the 
presence of Mrs. Piper or her daughters, and 
as will be seen later, there was an understand- 
ing on that point between E. A. F. and myself. 
i\lthough there appeared in one of our local 
papers an obituary notice of this lady, I am 
positive that it did not fall under the eye of 
Mrs. Piper, and if my dates and incidents are 
followed carefully it will be seen that she not 
only did not know of the passing of M. B. } one 
of the staunchest of her friends and supporters, 
for about six months after it occurred, but did 
not know, until told long afterwards, that less 
than three months after the death a message 
came through her hand, in her apparently 
normal state, from the same M. B. 

The poem must be borne in mind, and those 
who were familiar with the trance in the earlier 
days will certainly recognize it as not simply a 
poetical but a quite accurate description, as far 
as such a thing can be described in poetry, of 
the manner of Mrs. Piper's going into and com- 
ing out of trance, besides being a beautiful 
tribute to her sacrifice of time and privacy of 
personal life to the cause of science. Surely 
such a tribute could not be accepted by her 
without acknowledgment. All the more rea- 
son, then, why she should desire to communi- 



166 PAST AND PRESENT 

cate with M. B., who sent it to her. But M. B. 
had herself passed to the Great Beyond only a 
few days after the poem reached Mrs. Piper's 
hands. 

M. B. died on Jan. 3. 

On Feb. 3, Mrs. Piper casually remarked to 
me that she, or I think her daughter for her, 
had written to M. B. asking permission to make 
certain use of the poem, but had received no 
reply. The pathos of the situation went to 
my heart, but at the command of my judgment 
it immediately hardened, and in order to post- 
pone developments and at the same time have 
Mrs. Piper obtain some satisfaction, I sug- 
gested that she write to E. A. F. f who was the 
real author of the poem. She replied that her 
letter had been a joint one to both persons, and 
she naturally felt somewhat aggrieved that no 
attention had been paid to it. 

Very soon after that I left Boston for Wash- 
ington, for a stay of two weeks, and on my 
return, Feb. 17, found a letter, several days 
old, from E. A. F. } telling me of the receipt of 
Mrs. Piper's letter mentioned in the above par- 
agraph, and asking my advice as to whether to 
tell her frankly of the death of M. B. I re- 
plied on the following day, the 18th, and while 
I do not find among my papers copy of my re- 
ply, the succeeding letter received from 



WITH MRS. PIPER 167 

E. A. F. } from which I will quote, indicates its 
nature. 

Feb. 24, 19 1 2. 

" I held Miss Piper's letter until I heard 
from you. I have now written her saying that 
she might use the verses in any way she saw fit 
and excusing delay. I closed with the state- 
ment that Mrs. P. might ' hear from M. B. 
soon.' In a separate enclosed envelope I 
wrote Miss Alta privately explaining that 
M. B. had passed over, and asking that if pos- 
sible she withhold the facts from her mother, 
and in case of writing look for some evidence 
of a message. 

I am sorry that Mrs. P. felt hurt at the de- 
layed reply to her daughter's letter. I am ab- 
solutely certain that M. Z?. will try to get 
through a characteristic message if such a thing 
is possible, and if Mrs. P. can serve as an 
avenue of passage it will be to her that M. B. 
will turn. Nevertheless the personal side of 
Mrs. P.'s life is entitled to every consideration, 
and I agree with you that too rigid secrecy is 
unfair and unnecessary." 

On March 26 I spent the evening at Mrs. 
Piper's home, my visit being purely a social 
one. Toward the close of it, however, she 



168 PAST AND PRESENT 

felt impressed to write, and her hand was ap- 
parently made use of by some power outside 
of herself, when lo and behold, with the help 
of R. H. on the Other Side, a brief but clear 
message came from M. B. for E. A. F. } R. H. 
prefacing it with the words: "I am R. H. 
Hello, hello, are you Robbins? I have a mes- 
sage to give you." 1 Only initials were used in 
the message, and Mrs. Piper apparently under- 
stood nothing of it, and did not try to. Dur- 
ing the entire sitting Miss Alta Piper did not 
give any sign that she knew of the passing of 
M. B., nor did we mention the matter to each 
other during the remainder of the evening, and 
I have no reason to this day for supposing that 
Alta knew that I was aware of the fact, ex- 
cepting as it may possibly appear later in this 
chapter that she did. Mrs. Piper incidentally 
mentioned in the course of the evening that she 
still had not heard from M. B., but that 
E. A. F. had given permission to make any use 
of the verses she saw fit. She also said that 
she intended to write to M. B. when the latter 
should have reached her place of summer resi- 
dence, where she might be less occupied and 
might find time to reply. 

There were also in the writing things per- 
sonal to myself, and Mrs. Piper remarked that 

1 Richard Hodgson. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 169 

she thought it must be because of my sympathy 
that she felt impressed to write — that she had 
a short time previously tried to obtain writing 
for a very dear and old friend, but had failed. 

I cannot here give the message that came for 
E. A. F., that not being my object at this time, 
nor do I publish private communications com- 
ing for others unless specially requested or per- 
mitted to do so. 

The important point is that a message came, 
was recognized by the recipient as most signifi- 
cant, corroboration sent to me, and that Mrs. 
Piper had no conscious knowledge of the facts. 
To make this point still stronger, I might add 
that M. B. had been in England during a por- 
tion of the time covered by Mrs. Piper's last 
visit, and had been specially friendly with her 
at that time, and it thus seemed all the more 
strange that so dear a personal friend could 
have been dead three months without Mrs. 
Piper's having the slightest inkling of the fact, 
and without her recognizing, when there came 
through her own hand and when not in trance, 
what was supposedly a message from this very 
friend. 

The message in question and its corrobora- 
tion were duly reported to Sir Oliver Lodge. 

On the following May 4 I met Mrs. Piper 
again. We occasionally met for a walk or a 



170 PAST AND PRESENT 

little visit. On this occasion she related to me 
a very clear dream which she had had about 
M. B. In her dream she seemed to be sinking 
in water or trying to swim, and M. B. held out 
a line to her, telling her to cling to that and she 
would save her. She felt herself pulled ashore 
by that line, and then M . B. vanished. 

Interpretations of dreams occur to me very 
quickly, many of them no doubt very fanciful. 
I immediately took this dream to be symbolical, 
and felt that M. B. might from the Other Side, 
by her influence, her interest and her energy, 
lift Mrs. Piper out from what might have 
seemed at that time a trying condition. 

But even then I made not the slightest refer- 
ence to the passing of M. B. 

Time passed. Mrs. Piper and her family 
went into another State for the summer. The 
month of July I spent on the coast of Maine 
at a spot not many miles from where E. A. F. 
also had his summer residence. On July 24 I 
called on him and he told me that he had, quite 
recently I assumed, received a letter from Miss 
Alta Piper, saying that she would like to tell 
her mother of the death of M. B. While 
E. A. F. did not see any need of keeping the 
matter longer a secret, in his reply he had sug- 
gested that the question be referred to me. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 171 

This, however, was not done, though the fact 
of the death was evidently at that time com- 
municated to Mrs. Piper by her daughter. He 
had since received a letter from Mrs. Piper 
herself, in which she seemed, literally, broken- 
hearted, and although I wrote her immediately 
upon learning of these facts, explaining fully 
how and why it had been decided to keep from 
her all knowledge of the death of M. B., sev- 
eral months passed before I heard from her 
again, and I did not see her again until late 
in the fall. 

In a letter dated Oct. 4 of the same year she 
wrote : 

11 It has taken me a long time to recover 
from the sad shock of my friend M. B.'s death 
and the conditions concerning it. To me it 
seemed all too sad and horrible. At first I 
thought it would be impossible for me ever to 
reply to your letter, as I could gather from it 
no reason for your having kept silent so long 
or for having warned E. //. F. not to divulge 
what you seemed to consider a secret. It is 
through philosophy only that I am able to pkk 
up the threads of friendship and go on. . . . 
However, you doubtless thought you were do- 
ing right and benefiting science." 



172 PAST AND PRESENT 

About a week later, possibly fearing she had 
been a little too severe with me, she wrote : 

" Perhaps I have not clearly understood 
your position with science and the Society. 
However, you have won out in one respect and 
that ought to be worth more to you than 
friendship : i. e. y through all this sorrowful 
transaction you have proven conclusively that 
I had no normal means of knowing what my 
hand wrote. So far as Alta was concerned she 
kept the news from me, warned by E. A. F. 
through your instruction to do so, until I had 
actually written M. B. rather a severe letter 
which Alta begged me not to send, saying she 
would have an outsider write to her for me. 
Instead of this, however, she wrote asking 
E. A. F.'s consent to break the sad news to me. 
All this Alta told me later. Well, it is over, 
passed and gone, but that it has left its traces 
of sorrow and that it brought much suffering I 
cannot deny." 

Let me say right here that Mrs. Piper is of 
course altogether too sensible to allow a per- 
sonal friendship of long standing to be broken 
by such an occurrence as I have related, when 
once circumstances and reasons are fully un- 
derstood, and very soon after the date of the 



WITH MRS. PIPER 173 

last letter quoted, we met and talked the mat- 
ter over freely. 

In part explanation of the fact that personal 
feelings in connection with the loss by death of 
a personal friend were not in this case suffi- 
ciently considered by those about her to whom 
the death was known, I wish to say that the 
three persons mentioned were not near to- 
gether, each went his or her own way for the 
summer, and none felt that the responsibility 
for deciding just when the facts should be 
made known rested on his or her shoulders, 
and thus the matter was dropped by each one, 
awaiting further developments. 

In explanation and part justification of my 
own attitude in the case I will say that it did 
appear to me extremely important, from the 
standpoint of evidence for the Society, that op- 
portunity should be given for M. B. to return 
if possible without knowledge of her death on 
the part of the psychic: for of all those in the 
earthly group of sitters many of whom have 
now passed on, she certainly would be one to 
make an effort to communicate. Then, again, 
the case had been reported to Sir Oliver Lodge, 
one of the leading members of the Society, and 
I felt that the matter was really out of my 
hands. And, finally, I did not know until long 
afterwards how much of a friend of Mrs. 



174 PAST AND PRESENT 

Piper M. B. had become during the last two 
years of the latter's life, for I had not been 
told that they were in England at the same 
time, had been much together, and that cir- 
cumstances were such as to strengthen and make 
sacred the friendship between them. Had I 
known this I might have acted differently. 

I trust that my motive in giving the above ex- 
tremely personal details thus fully will be un- 
derstood, for if ever there was a case where 
the consideration due the personal life of the 
psychic and the attitude of reserve toward her 
which has in the past generally been considered 
by scientific investigators to be the proper one 
come in conflict with each other, this certainly 
is such a case. And if ever there was a case in 
which the psychic, if she had known by any 
normal or abnormal means of the death of a 
certain person, would have given evidence of 
such knowledge to those about her, this cer- 
tainly is such a case. 



VII 

BRIEF MESSAGES AND THEIR 
SIGNIFICANCE 

1912-1915 

During the two or three years following the 
last date given, it was only at rare intervals 
that any messages for me came through the 
involuntary writing, either when I was present 
or when no one was there but members of the 
family. During these years the writing was 
not sought by those closely associated with the 
psychic, but I am told that on the infrequent oc- 
casions when it did occur, it was carefully pre- 
served by her daughter and forwarded to offi- 
cials or members of the S. P. R. in England; or, 
if messages came for individuals, they were 
privately offered to the persons concerned. 
The few that were received by me have no 
special interest for the general reader, except 
that they show that I was kept in mind by the 
group of personalities having control on the 
Other Side, and while it was not always pos- 
sible for me to decide, especially in instances 

175 



176 PAST AND PRESENT 

where I was not myself present, from what par- 
ticular personality the message came, the mes- 
sage itself was in almost every case signficant 
if not positively evidential, and its meaning 
was easily interpreted by me, of course more 
or less correctly. I select only a few such 
messages, detaching them from irrelevant mat- 
ters referred to at the same sitting. 

On March 19, 19 14, the following came: 

" Our love to Miss Robbins. Tell her we 
are by no means dead yet. Activity awaits 
us." 

" The boy who got into the boat with gun is 
all right and sends love to his father John, 
mother too. Grandma is here happy and well 
with Laura. Oh she is so surprised to find us 
all here living and in our own happy and peace- 
ful homes. God loves His own and guides all 
who trust in him.' , 

The " boy " was quickly recognized as my 
nephew Harold, about whom I have written 
fully in Chapter IV. His father's name is 
John. His grandma, my mother, died in 191 1. 
Laura was my oldest sister who died many 
years ago, much attached to my mother in life, 
and who, I had been told, was to be the first 



WITH MRS. PIPER 177 

one to greet my mother when her time for pas- 
sing from one phase of life to the other should 
come. 

On April 13, 19 14, I was asked, as I have 
frequently been in the past, to deliver a mes- 
sage for another person, and in addition the 
following came, Dr. Hodgson communicating: 

11 Tell Miss R. mother says it is quite time 
we were giving light, as father and I have al- 
ready seen our mistakes and send much love." 

I did not attempt to make any special ap- 
plication of these words. I will say, however, 
that about this time and extending over a per- 
iod of some months the question of sale of our 
old homestead was under consideration, a 
famous old place which no doubt my father had 
believed would always remain in the posses- 
sion of some one bearing his own name. Mat- 
ters pertaining to the division of the property 
might conceivably have troubled both him and 
my mother. 

Again about the first of March, 19 15, came 
the following regarding my mother: 

1 Mother says she is now less blind and 
hopes you realize it." 

While my mother in this life clung to her or- 



178 PAST AND PRESENT 

thodox belief until the very last, she was not 
narrow-minded, and was even eager on occa- 
sions to have me narrate to her my personal ex- 
periences in psychical investigation; and when 
I had finished she would pretend that she did 
not believe there was any truth in them. To- 
ward the last of her life I made an effort to 
impress upon her mind certain names, perhaps 
a half dozen, those of Rector, Imperator, etc., 
and some of my own personal friends. I asked 
her to repeat them over to herself, which I 
knew she was willing to do, and upon reaching 
the Other Side to try to recall them, and if 
possible to find the personalities for whom the 
names stood, telling her that if she did not find 
them they no doubt would find her. There- 
fore the remark that she " was less blind and 
hoped I realized it " had much more signifi- 
cance for me than the mere words implied. 
Also on the same day came: 

" Besides a friend named Orin or similar 
name returns to send his greeting. He comes 
with the General. One in a thousand is a good 
simile. She will understand." 

The man whose Christian name was Orinton 
died in 1907. He had purported to return at 
least once before, and I think only once, namely, 
on Dec. 16, 1908. On that occasion he said: 



WITH MRS. PIPER 179 

11 Didn't I tell you once that you were one in 
a thousand?" Now, more than six years 
later, the same words are used. 

This man was for a number of years as- 
sociated with me in public office. The fact is 
that at one time he remarked to me, impul- 
sively: " You are one in ten thousand; you 
are one in a thousand, any way." I cannot 
state positively, but my memory is that at some 
time later in life I chaffed him considerably for 
having paid me such an extremely doubtful 
compliment. I think it must have been in life, 
otherwise the words would not have been so 
impressed upon his mind as well as upon my 
own. At any rate, my notes say that upon the 
occasion of his return in 1908 I reminded him 
that I had laughed a good deal over the in- 
cident. The truth is that he was in life very 
gentlemanly in his manner and ordinarily very 
polite in his language. [See pp. 59-63] 

The remark quoted above, considering its 
implication, would rarely, almost never, be 
made by one friend to another; therefore its 
value here as evidence of identity is of some 
importance. 

On April 29, 19 15, a message was received 
for me purporting to come from Dr. Hodgson 
or while he was communicating, with his name 
written at its close, as follows : 



180 PAST AND PRESENT 

" Good work keep on I like to see it. Sorry 
for my own mistakes no one knows them better 
than I do now. My position was indeed a 
difficult one necessitating great secrecy and 
care. I had the whole world to fight therefore 
it was necessary for me to conduct myself and 
my work accordingly until I had proven facts. 
Now there is no reason for suppression or 
special secrecy or care. Live and let live will 
henceforth and forever be my motto." 

" General and I have met and are in accord. 
I like him and we both send love. Do not let 
your pen lie idle. Jot down all those ideas 
and later put them into book form. My love 
always. R. Hodgson." 

This is another instance where, if we can 
imagine two communicators present, one speak- 
ing for the other or perhaps one listening to the 
other, and both in accord as to general senti- 
ments to be expressed to the sitter, it is diffi- 
cult to attribute all the words to one communi- 
cator, and the appearance is that the spirit pur- 
porting to communicate is so far influenced by 
the spirit standing beside him that the senti- 
ments of the latter get recorded in quite char- 
acteristic and recognizable language. 

For instance, the words " good work keep 
on I like to see it," if they related to my own 



WITH MRS. PIPER 181 

office work, were more likely to come from the 
General, as I was for some years associated 
with him in public office. " Sorry for my own 
mistakes," etc., might have been from either 
communicator. " My position was indeed a 
difficult one," etc., with the two or three sen- 
tences which follow, we must conclude came 
directly from Hodgson, for they are certainly 
applicable to the position which he held in psy- 
chical research circles during the last fifteen 
years of his life, and to his special work of in- 
vestigation and experiment with Mrs. Piper. 
" Live and let live " was decidedly a motto and 
a policy of the General when in life. " Do not 
let your pen lie idle," etc., might have come 
from either spirit. 

Confirmation of some portions of this mes- 
sage, which came at a later sitting and is given 
in the last few paragraphs of this chapter, 
should be read in connection with the above, 
but I must now give its application as I see 
it. 

For two or three days previous I had been 
much troubled over work at my office, and 
had lost or mislaid a batch of valuable papers. 
On the evening before the day on which this 
message was written I remained at my office, 
went carefully over all of my papers which I 
could find and ascertained just which ones were 



182 PAST AND PRESENT 

missing. That night and the night preceding 
I had been disturbed and sleepless. The work 
I had been doing was something unusual for me 
and unusual in the department, and for the 
time being considerable responsibility was put 
upon my shoulders. I was expected to keep 
in strict order complex papers comprising 
claims for payment by the Commonwealth 
which involved thousands of dollars. I had 
hoped and trusted and made silent appeal that 
I might see the lost papers in my sleep or in 
my waking dreams: for once many years be- 
fore, I did find some lost papers by seeing in 
my sleep exactly where they lay in a certain 
drawer. On that previous occasion I myself 
had placed them in the drawer, where they did 
not belong at all, but had so completely for- 
gotten the act that I declared over and over 
again that the papers were not in my posses- 
sion. However, on the morning of the day 
on which the message quoted above was writ- 
ten, " good w r ork; keep on, I like to see it," I 
threw the burden off my mind as well as I 
could, and that night slept better though was 
still somewhat troubled. The next morning 
the mail brought me the actual message, and 
later in that day my eyes suddenly, without 
search, fell upon the batch of lost papers lying 
in plain view on a table or desk near the center 



WITH MRS. PIPER 183 

of the room, but still where they did not be- 
long. 

I made notes on this message shortly after 
it was received, and then the whole matter prac- 
tically dropped from my mind, but the con- 
firmation of the message and its interpretation 
came more than three months later, at a sitting 
at which I was present, on Aug. 8, 19 15. Ac- 
count of this sitting as a whole will be given in 
the next chapter, but I must here offer a few 
extracts from the script of that date. 

Extracts from Sitting of August 8, 19 15 
Rector Controlling 

[The General was supposed to be communi- 
cating, and after a few opening remarks he 
said:] 

I told Hodgson to tell you about some pa- 
pers. Did he? 

(Well, I got the papers and pencils, if that 
is what he means.) 

[Referring simply to paper and pencils to 
be used at sitting, several blocks of paper.] 

No, long ago, some Sabbaths. I told Hodg- 
son to say it was as I liked to see it, and you 
were a little troubled about some papers. 

(Do you mean when I was looking over old 
papers and destroying some?) 

[During some little time previous to this 



184 PAST AND PRESENT 

date I had, in my home, not at my office, looked 
over a great many private papers and de- 
stroyed most of them.] 

No, you found them at the time of our mes- 
sages. Try to remember. 

(I will, but I cannot think — ) 

Did you receive a message from Hodgson 
through this Light? 

(Yes, but I do not remember about papers.) 

We did not mention papers but saw you 
sleepless and troubled and we came and gave 
a message. Never mind if you do not recall 
it. We sent it just the same. 

[This was probably said by the control.] 

(It will come to me probably.) 

Ask the girl who just left. 

[Meaning Alta Piper, Mrs. Piper's oldest 
daughter, who was present at the opening of 
the sitting and had then left the room.] 

(All right, I will.) 

Better clear it up and then we will go on 
to other things. Call her. Hodgson. 

[Miss Alta returns.] 

Hodgson says he sent a message saying all 
was — and you gave it. The last message he 
sent. 

[Probably by the control.] 

[By Miss Alta] (Do you mean the one I 
sent the other day?) 



WITH MRS. PIPER 185 

No. Do you recall having lost some pa- 
pers? 

[By Miss R.] (No, I do not.) 

And dreaming? Do you recall our message 
at the time? 

[In a flash of recognition] 

(Yes, yes, yes, yes! Oh, that was beau- 
tiful! I found the papers all right on a desk. 
I remember distinctly that I threw it off my 
mind and thought I should find them, and I did 
the very next day, I think.) 

But the girl sent our message at the same 
time. 

(Oh, yes, I think it came at the same time. 
I remember distinctly Hodgson spoke of my 
good work.) 

We saw you, and that was our way of telling 
you. 

(Yes, yes, all right now.) 

Splendid ! So glad you now understand. I 
want to prove to you that we are — 

[Interruption on account of difficulty in 
reading, and this sentence not finished except 
by some personal assurance. About the time 
when I understood the hand gave three thumps 
on the table.] 

My notes and my memory are that the mes- 
sage was actually written early in the day on 



186 PAST AND PRESENT 

which I attempted to throw the burden com- 
pletely off my mind, and that the papers were 
found quite early in the day on which I re- 
ceived the message by mail. 

My mind appears, in the preceding account, 
to be somewhat dense, not quick to compre- 
hend or recognize, but by reference to the ac- 
tual words of the message it will be seen that 
it was not easy at the time to apply them to 
the actual losing and finding of the papers, 
though I felt strongly that they had something 
to do with the unusual situation of myself in 
relation to my work. 

This incident is strongly suggestive of telep- 
athy between the living and the dead. 



VIII 

TEMPORARY RETURN OF THE TRANCE 
AUGUST, 1915 

Not since November, 1909, had I seen Mrs. 
Piper in the deep trance characteristic of her 
sittings previous to that date. 

She and her daughters spent the summer of 
1915 in another New England State. On 
Aug. 5 of that year the following message came 
through the involuntary writing and was 
promptly mailed to me at Boston. I give it 
complete as it came to me. 

"HAIL + + 

Hodgson & Rector 

Robbins we are calling you to meet us on 
coming Sabbath as of old, through light and 
you must be in readiness and fully prepared 
to meet all requirements as great and good 
things are to come of it. Shirk not any re- 
sponsibilities demanded of you by us. Be in 
these surroundings when the earthly world is 
in a state of prayer. Many messages are to 

187 



188 PAST AND PRESENT 

be sent and much to be said to you. Guidance 
is what you need. 

Beware and be on hand and in readiness to 
meet us on day mentioned. In the meantime 
our love and blessing rest on you. 

+ Farewell. 

R. & H." 

A day or two previous I had received an in- 
vitation from Mrs. Piper to spend the week 
end with her, but as I was soon to start on a 
trip to the California Coast I did not think best 
to accept, and had written declining it. Then 
came the call. 

On Aug. 6 Mrs. Piper had herself written 
to me, from which letter I quote : 

" I am writing to say the messages come, as 
you doubtless know, automatically, therefore 
it is, we think, difficult to know just how much 
reliance one ought to place on what comes in 
this particular way. Therefore we wish you 
to use your own judgment as to whether it 
would be worth your while to spend so much 
time and money just because of these state- 
ments. We should, however, be very glad to 
see you as you will know by my previous letter 
in which I invited you to spend the week end 
with us. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 189 

" Just got your letter and think you are wise 
in sticking to your post, sorry though I am in 
not seeing you before you depart. " 

The last paragraph refers to my letter de- 
clining the invitation, which I had mailed before 
receiving the message of Aug. 5. In accord- 
ance with my policy of the past years, I would 
not of course think of disregarding the call or 
disobeying instructions, and therefore deter- 
mined to be on hand contrary to my previous 
decision. 

The sitting took place on Sunday morning, 
Aug. 8. I supposed that we were simply to 
look for the automatic writing, thinking that 
the words u as of old " related simply to the 
fact of my being called. Therefore I was in- 
deed surprised, when we were making prepara- 
tions for the sitting, to see Mrs. Piper arrange 
pillows on a table in front of her in the same 
manner as of old, and it was not until that mo- 
ment that I understood that she and her daugh- 
ter Alta expected or hoped for the trance. 
Suffice it to say that the psychic entered the 
trance state and came out of it in about the 
same way as of old, being about eleven minutes 
in coming out. I thought I perceived a very 
little more ease than formerly in going into the 
trance, though the difference was scarcely no- 



190 PAST AND PRESENT 

ticeable. Mrs. Piper remarked, after she had 
returned to her normal condition, that the only 
difference she herself realized was that she 
seemed during the sitting to be conscious of a 
presence in the room. Rector took pains to 
explain that they were not in quite as formerly. 
The opening remarks were as follows: 

" + H A I L. We come to greet thee once 
again. R. Hodgson also here. 

u Good morning friend of earth. We come 
to greet you as we promised long ago. 

" Mother says greetings dear child. I have 
longed to explain how I found life here. So 
happy, free and above all well. ... I want 
you to know if I were back I should laugh no 
more at your credulity. It has all come so 
clearly to me. Everything is so different from 
what I had thought." 

Many spirits seemed to appear at this sitting 
and personal messages were sent which I was 
of course expected to deliver. A clear though 
brief communication came to me supposedly 
from William James, in the following words: 

11 W. J. Good morning Miss Robbins. I 
understand absolutely and everything is splen- 
didly understood by and between us. My love 



WITH MRS. PIPER 191 

and greetings if you do not object to accepting 
my love." 
I replied: 

" I am proud and pleased to get it." 

The significance of this brief communication 
was at once apprehended by me, but it is not 
easy to make it clear to others. Some half a 
dozen years or more before, I had had a num- 
ber of conversations with William James in re- 
gard to the publication of material pertaining 
to the Piper work, and he had taken pains to 
explain to me why one should use care in lend- 
ing the prestige of a great name or a well 
earned reputation, as the following words, 
taken from a letter of his, dating as far back 
as 1908, will show: 

" To write a preface is practically to co- 
operate; and one should only cooperate with 
what coalesces with one's own ends. If one 
lends one's name to side-ends, one fritters away 
whatever authority it may eventually come to 
wield in the direction of the more essential 
ends." 

This was the second time that I had heard 
from him, briefly, the communication on the 
first occasion, in the very early occurrence of 



192 PAST AND PRESENT 

the involuntary writing without trance, being 
simply a greeting and a — " remember the 
. . . incident?" If I recall correctly Dr. 
Hodgson was at the moment giving me a per- 
sonal commission, and was impressing upon me 
the importance of secrecy in the case, and the 
brief query from W. J. was most apropos be- 
cause the " incident " was one with which he 
must have been very familiar, but of which 
few people knew, and was a case in which lack 
of sufficient secrecy had caused some misunder- 
standing and unhappiness. 

In the message quoted at the beginning of 
this chapter it was stated that great and good 
things were to come of the sitting soon to fol- 
low, and I was warned not to shirk any re- 
sponsibilities placed upon me by the spirit per- 
sonalities. It is perhaps needless to say that 
always in reporting such sittings, at which mes- 
sages were likely to come and almost always 
did come for distant persons, I conscientiously 
considered it my duty to transcribe such mes- 
sages as accurately as possible, and to deliver 
them as promptly as possible. These mes- 
sages might be mere assurances of continued 
remembrance and affection, they might be state- 
ments the real significance of which I was 
wholly unable to interpret, and again they 
might involve consequences not only of vital 



WITH MRS. PIPER 193 

importance to the persons to whom they were 
sent but of great weight and far-reaching in- 
fluence as evidence for the possibility of com- 
munication between the two worlds. 

As illustration I might say that it was at this 
sitting that the famous so-called " Faunus Mes- 
sage " came for Sir Oliver Lodge, a classical 
allusion, namely: " Myers says you take the 
part of the poet and he will act as Faunus," 
later interpreted to mean that a blow was to 
come to Sir Oliver which would be softened by 
the spirit Myers; a message which has been 
much discussed by prominent persons interested 
in psychical research, and by Sir Oliver himself 
in Part II, beginning with Chapter II, of his 
book Raymond. The message in question 
reached Sir Oliver near the beginning of Sep- 
tember, 19 1 5. His young son Raymond was 
then in the Great War and on the 14th day of 
the same month was killed on the Western 
Front. 



IX 



A FEW TESTS. SINGING IN THE 

CHERRY TREE. THE 

BIRTHDAY PARTY 

1916 

On Jan. I, 191 6, a few words came through 
the involuntary script for me, reaching me by 
mail some days later. The message began 
thus: 

" Now a few words to Miss R. We do not 
wish to seek her against her own will. We 
never thought of doing this but if she feels she 
does not care to seek us all well." 

This message disturbed me not a little. I 
had supposed that it was distinctly understood 
between myself and the Piper family that I was 
not to seek. I felt that I must have been mis- 
quoted or misrepresented, unintentionally of 
course, by one of the Piper daughters at the 
sitting when these words came. I therefore 

lost no time in securing an opportunity to talk 

194 



WITH MRS. PIPER 195 

the matter over with Mrs. P. and letting her 
know that I positively should like to obtain 
some writing, and she suggested an appoint- 
mentment for the following Sunday afternoon, 
Jan. 1 6. Miss Alta Piper sat with me on this 
occasion. 

At the opening of the sitting greetings came 
from Rector and also from Mme. G. } who, I 
should explain, was understood to be the " new 
control " appearing during the period of Mrs. 
Piper's last visit to England, when she was 
temporarily out of health and unable to go at 
will into the trance condition. I entered into 
conversation with Rector almost immediately 
in an effort to clear up an apparent misunder- 
standing. Among other things he said: 

11 We only wish not to weary or bind down 
any earthly mortal against his own inner con- 
science, that is all. We wish of all things har- 
mony, understanding and peace; otherwise it 
would be a matter of impossibility to continue 
with our work. . . . But we are conscious of 
some responsibility on the part of the ones we 
employ as well as on ourselves. . . . We sent 
our last message out of our own interpretation 
of the conditions and if we can recall no voice 
was given but our own. . . . All is well and 
we feel will in future be understood and 'when 



196 PAST AND PRESENT 

we call it also will be understood. . . . We 
are hardly prepared for consecutive work but 
will give mention to it when prepared. There 
is and will be a great field of work on the other 
side of water when men shall have lain aside 
their arms." 

I asked: " But do you think I shall have a 
part of that work? " 

" I speak so. Certainly, if you keep in 
spiritual accord with our previous statements 
and in them so have faith." 

Responsibility for the message which had so 
disturbed me was, then, assumed wholly by the 
personalities, and 1 am in conscience bound to 
say that I feel that my spirit friends must have 
had some perception of my then existing mental 
state, thus furnishing another illustration of 
what theorists would call telepathy between in- 
carnate and discarnate minds. For, while I 
have always made it a point to hold myself in 
readiness for anything which they might de- 
mand of me, I confess to occasional doubt as 
to their ability to carry out all the promises 
of the past in regard to further important 
work, to a slight shrinking from further re- 
sponsibility in the matter, and to a conscious- 
ness of not having kept myself steadily to the 



WITH MRS. PIPER 197 

level of my ideals of faith and spirituality. 
While I believe that they can see the general 
trend of one's life, and oftentimes important 
events which are to transpire, I certainly have 
no idea that they can intervene to the extent of 
preventing deflection from the " straight and 
narrow path " on the part of any mortal who 
is not anxious to keep to that path. Note the 
words, " if you keep in spiritual accord with 
our previous statements and in them so have 
faith." The responsibility rests on our own 
heads for the exercise of our wills and the 
proper development of our lives. This I am 
sure is good orthodoxy, and need not be further 
dilated upon here. Notwithstanding all this, 
I believe that faith in and communion with 
those who live in what we call a higher sphere, 
and especially those who claim to exercise a 
guardianship over our lives, will surely bring 
to us the most helpful influence. 

At this sitting Hodgson purported to com- 
municate, and among other things said: 

" We shall call whenever we can out of the 
blue. ... I am seeing you all in France soon, 
all together. ... I see you there as surely as 
my name is Hodgson. I see peace restored and 
militarism crushed to earth and many thousand 
leagues below it. Never has such a psychical 



198 EAST AND PRESENT 

wave passed through all lands as will pass after 
peace has been proclaimed. Wait and you 
will see." 

Considering the date of this prophecy (Jan. 
1 6, 19 16) so far as it concerns the end of the 
War and victory over militarism, it may now 
be thought to have been quite remarkable. 

When Rector returned to have a final talk 
with me he said: " Now do not say you are 
not seeking." 

On Feb. 25, 19 16, a brief message came for 
me, presumably from Rector, from which I 
extract the following: 

u I wish to send a word to Miss R. to say 
she is doing well by not allowing her pen to lie 
idle or rust in its holder." 

I had previously been advised " not to let 
my pen lie idle." 

" And the General wishes to thank her for 
the violets she gave him some Sabbaths ago." 

Now I had given him no violets, in fact had 
had no flowers in my own room for some time, 
but quite an unusual thing had occurred in the 
house in which I lived, some Sabbaths previ- 
ously. A very intimate and lifelong friend of 
the lady of the house had died in a hospital, 



WITH MRS. PIPER 109 

and the body had been brought to the house and 
left there over Sunday, Feb. 6. After it was 
removed I noticed a large bunch of violets in 
the room where it had lain, the door of which 
room was now standing open. It was two 
floors below my own room. A very strong 
odor of violets permeated the whole house, so 
much so that my sister and I remarked it and 
said that the flowers were kept altogether too 
long, that they must be decaying and ought to 
be thrown away. This case will add to the 
evidence, of which I believe there is a consider- 
able amount already existing, that spirits can 
and often do perceive the presence of flowers 
in their old haunts or in the vicinity of their 
friends here, even though they do not always 
correctly see all the circumstances in connection 
therewith. 

After the sitter who received this message 
had said that she would immediately forward 
it to me, the following words came : 

( Good. Other things will come from time 
to time even if not forced and no one seems 
inclined to force anything on our side, but wait 
calmly for conditions to clear." 

On March 24, 19 16, the following message 
came: 



200 PAST AND PRESENT 

" Tell Miss Robbins she is by no means alone 
neither is she forgotten. We see all she does, 
we hear her call, in one sense we understand a 
good deal more than any one can possibly re- 
alize." 

• ••••• 

" You can be no more alone than you were as 
a child in what Laura calls the Robbins nest." 

This last remark was said to come from my 
friend the General. The play on words is ap- 
parent, but the message is more pertinent than 
merely that. The old home in the country 
with its many inmates and much young life 
might well have been called a robin's nest and 
I have been told actually was so called on at 
least one occasion soon after I was born. 

One Sunday early in April, 19 16, right in 
the midst of other writing, suddenly came the 
following, without any announcement as to the 
person for whom it was intended, but easily 
recognizable as meant for me or for my sister, 
who was at the time living with me, and for 
whom messages sometimes came. It was later 
sent to me by mail: 

" Laura says if that is my sister Grace she 
will surely remember climbing into a tree in the 
front of our old house and when one of our 



WITH MRS. PIPER 201 

neighbors passed just as she was singing re- 
marked, ' Oh! that is the Robbins singing in the 
tree.' " 

Grace was the youngest daughter in a large 
family and Laura, who had passed on nearly 
forty years before, was the oldest. Though 
there were fifteen years between them, they 
were very companionable. Both were good 
musicians. Grace was almost from babyhood a 
birdlike singer. It was as easy for her to sing 
as to breathe, in fact it would have been diffi- 
cult to prevent her from singing had one been 
inclined to do so. 

In front of the old home, close beside the 
public road, there were several large trees, two 
of them maples, their foliage in summer being 
very dense. I have a dim recollection of my 
sister Grace (now Mrs. Moore) having at one 
time climbed into one of these maples and sing- 
ing, and of the singing having been heard and 
remarked upon by some one passing. Upon 
my questioning my sister as to her memory of 
any such incident she replied without any hesi- 
tancy that she remembered that she used often 
to climb into a cherry tree which also stood 
very close to the road but in a corner of the 
home lot a few yards to the right of the house. 
She knew no one could discover her there with- 



202 PAST AND PRESENT 

out careful search, and she used to sing, and 
she recalled distinctly that one man passed by 
and remarked in these words, probably exact: 
" Oh, that is the Robbins singing up in the 
tree." 

My recollection, very faint and almost 
worthless, is of her having climbed into the 
maple tree, and after my mentioning to her 
the maple tree she thought there might have 
been one occasion when she did sing from the 
maple tree, but of her singing in the cherry 
tree, and of the remark made by the neighbor, 
she is very sure. Her memory of certain inci- 
dents of her childhood is very clear. 

Laura passed away in 1881. It was, there- 
fore, about thirty-five years after her passing 
that she gave us this test, and the incident it- 
self must have occurred somewhere about fifty 
years previous to the date of this message. 
Mrs. Piper could never have known of such an 
occurrence except by being told of it by myself 
or my sister, and I am sure she never was told. 
She manifested much surprise that such an ac- 
count should have been given through her hand. 

Some may wonder at the expression, ' If 
that is my sister Grace." I do not wonder at 
it, nor do I attempt to explain it satisfactorily. 
Neither my sister nor I was present when the 
writing was going on. We lived several miles 



WITH MRS. PIPER 203 

from Mrs. Piper. I was in the habit of meet- 
ing her down town occasionally, as friends do 
meet, and once in a while, though quite rarely, 
my sister would join us. Grace may have been 
dimly perceived by Laura in the surroundings 
of the medium. But certainly if our spirit 
friends can see us at all clearly in our homes, 
Laura must have frequently seen my sister and 
me in the apartment we then occupied together. 

In this connection I wish to go back a num- 
ber of years and offer a communication con- 
taining a so-called test which came at a sitting 
of my own in April of 1905 and which has 
never been published, although record of it was 
at the time handed by me to the S. P. R. 

This same sister Laura was purporting to 
communicate. Her communications have 
been, as I have stated before, rare and brief, 
though generally clear. She had just sent a 
simple message of love and assurance to my sis- 
ter Grace, and then she said: 

I want you to ask Grace if she remembers 
a party we once went to in which we changed 
dresses. 

(Oh! — it was not a party, but it was, — 
well, it might be called a party; it was in the 
old home.) 

Ask her if she remembers that as a test from 



204 PAST AND PRESENT 

me, and I think no one living could know it 
except ourselves, and I don't believe you ever 
told, have you? 

(Well, I may have told somebody, but I 
think I never told the Light.) 

[I do not think now that I ever told any- 
body.] 

Light? I don't know — I mean that that 
is a secret between ourselves. No one could 
have known it. But I want you to ask Grace 
that as a test, and as a proof of my lack of 
being annihilated, that I am not annihilated, 
and that I do remember earthly incidents and 
facts, and that I love her dearly, and that her 
interests are mine, and that I am exceedingly 
happy and clear. Now what have you to say? 

(Laura, I have not had such a message for 
years.) 

The dress incident was this. Their birth- 
days coming on the same day of the month, 
fifteen years apart, they used to call themselves 
twins. When Grace was ten years old Laura 
dressed her, early in the morning, in one of 
her own, Laura's, long dresses, then put on 
herself one of Grace's short dresses, whieh 
could hardly have reached much brlow her 
waist. They then went down stairs where my 
mother was, Laura in the short dress preceding 



WITH MRS. PIPER 205 

and saying in a whining voice, " Now, mother, 
can't she stop? M in imitation of what Grace was 
in the habit of saying when Laura teased her. 
They had a great deal of fun over the affair, 
and the dress incident made a lasting impres- 
sion on the child's mind. Grace tells me that 
they called it a birthday party. It took place 
about thirty-five years previous to the date of 
my sitting, and the communication came twenty- 
four years after Laura had passed to the Other 
Side. I should not have recalled the incident 
so readily as I did at the sitting, had not Grace 
spoken of it to me during the winter just then 
passed. In fact, I do not think I should have 
remembered it at all. 

This same sister, Grace, seems to attract her 
spirit friends, for messages come to her when 
she least expects them, most of them clear and 
significant if not evidential. In June, 191 6, 
the following came : 

" Alanson says better and better as time goes 
on. Mating of minds is essential with soul 
matedness. Understand, to Grace. He seems 
very anxious that the message should be under- 
stood." 

These words of course are of no importance 
whatever to any one but the particular person 



206 PAST AND PRESENT 

for whom they were intended, and considering 
their intimate character we could not very prop- 
erly ask that person to analyze them for us and 
state to just what degree they are significant or 
pertinent. I cannot, however, let the incident 
pass without notice because of the importance 
of so uncommon a name as Alanson coming 
through so clearly. It so happened that my 
sister's husband (who died in 1904) had three 
Christian names, Alanson being the first. His 
third name was Pickett, that being his mother's 
maiden name and the one by which he was al- 
most invariably called, at least by every one 
except his wife, and by her most of the time 
when speaking of him to others. She tells me 
that she did occasionally call him Alanson when 
others were not present. 

Considering the nature of the message, and 
Rector's words: " He seems very anxious that 
the message should be understood," the par- 
ticular name chosen for recognition is signifi- 
cant. 

Neither Mrs. Piper nor her daughters knew 
to whom the name belonged, nor were they 
really certain to whom the message should be 
sent. The words came, however, in close con- 
nection with other matter intended for me, 
hence were included in the portion of the or- 
iginal script sent to me. When speaking of 



WITH MRS. PIPER 20? 

my sister to Mrs. Piper, I usually spoke of her 
as Mrs. Moore. 

On this same occasion the boy Harold, pre- 
viously mentioned, sent brief clear messages to 
both his father and his mother, separately, the 
first being as follows : 

' Harold sends love to dad and says he 
hopes he will some day see the light. Richard 
will if he does not." 

His father, my brother, has been known as 
a skeptic practically all his life, having paid no 
attention whatever, so far as I know, to the 
subjects of Spiritualism and Psychical Research 
until about a year ago. During the past year 
he has read more or less on these subjects, and 
has had some correspondence w 7 ith me regard- 
ing them. Richard is his youngest boy, seven 
years old, born fifteen years after the next 
youngest son was born. He was an uncom- 
monly bright baby, and is of a very lovable dis- 
position. He must be, I think, one of the 
11 new race M which many people think is being 
generated in America at the present time. At 
least I am sure that no one who knows him 
could doubt that he will, if he lives to grow up, 
11 see the light," whatever that expression may 
mean in his day. The father and this boy have 



208 PAST AND PRESENT 

been companions almost from the birth of the 
baby. They talk and reason together. The 
father's affections are bound up in the life of 
the boy. Again is the message pertinent, and 
must mean much more to the recipient than in 
an ordinary case the mere words would imply. 
Included in the script which I have said was 
written some time in June, 191 6, Rector, ad- 
dressing his words to me, said: 

" Hodgson and we all agree that patience is 
the only method to pursue until the mortal 
world is out of troubled waters." 

This I take to mean, as has been intimated 
before, that much in the way of communica- 
tion cannot be given until the World War is 
over. 

And Hodgson himself said : 

" Miss Robbins, how are you? I see you 
pegging away at a book. Good enough, so 
keep on. . . . Now do not give up the ship. 
If you do you are lost." 

If any apology is due from me for publishing 
the portrait of my sister, I will say that I feel 
that it may lend zest to my text for those stu- 
dents who may read it critically, since her whole 



WITH MRS. PIPER 209 

case presents a phase of the subject quite differ- 
ent from that of the eager seeker who must 
have personal contact with the psychic in order 
to obtain any degree of satisfaction. She 
never called herself a psychic in the sense in 
which that word is commonly used, but the 
facts seem to indicate that she has often been 
in spiritual touch with those in the Unseen. 
She has allowed the publication only upon my 
urgent request 



SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND 

1917 

During the summer season of 191 6 I did 
not see Mrs. Piper at all, and not again until 
quite late in the fall after her return from the 
country, nor did I receive any messages through 
the automatic writing. Upon my remarking 
to her one day that I thought " they " must 
have forgotten my existence altogether, she re- 
plied that she thought there had been an oc- 
casional reference to me during the summer, 
but that her daughters had not had time to go 
over all the script. I told her that I much 
preferred to know that such was the case than 
to feel that I was being altogether overlooked 
by the personalities on the Other Side. 

It is generally understood, I think, by in- 
terested persons, that going over automatic 
script, making copy, inserting remarks of sitter, 
adding explanatory notes, in fact editing the 
script, involves a vast amount of time and 
labor, and that it must be carefully done if in- 
vestigation along these lines is to be of any 

210 




Mrs. Moore 
recipient of many assurances 



WITH MRS. PIPER 211 

value to the world. I believe, however, that 
Mrs. Piper and her daughters, although during 
these latter years much engaged with other mat- 
ters, both daughters being professional musi- 
cians, have been very conscientious in delivering 
personal messages which have come for some 
of the sitters of the early days. I happen to 
know that many such messages have been pri- 
vately delivered, and whether or not they ever 
find their way to the files of the Society for 
Psychical Research, they must have been the 
means of scattering much good seed which will 
eventually bear fruit in the changing of public 
sentiment toward the relation between the seen 
and the unseen worlds, not to mention the com- 
fort which has been brought by them to the 
various individual recipients. 

A few days after my last conversation with 
Mrs. P., namely, on 22 November, 19 16, I re- 
ceived by mail the following message, which 
was without date when it reached me, though 
I was told that it was recent: 

11 To Miss R. say we by no means forget her 
but realize fully all conditions and changes com- 
ing to her." 

This appears to be in response to my thought 
as expressed above, and possibly the outcome 



212 PAST AND PRESENT 

of my conversation with the psychic. Three 
days later another brief reassuring communica- 
tion was handed me, to which the Hodgson sig- 
nature was attached. 

The critical reader may say that, given the 
fact of involuntary writing, there is nothing 
strange in my receiving communications through 
the Piper script, and that, from my long ac- 
quaintance with the psychic and my close as- 
sociation with her in some of those years, the 
natural inference would be that I would receive 
them, and that their evidential or other value 
is vitiated by that association. This might be 
admitted were it true that I could ever com- 
mand or even induce the writing, but I wish to 
again make it explicit that I cannot. It is true 
that I did not often go to her residence, where 
most of the writing occurred, our meeting dur- 
ing this period being mostly outside of home, 
for entertainment or recreation. I have, how- 
ever, been at her home on more than one oc- 
casion seemingly favorable for communications, 
when mentally I have tried to induce the writ- 
ing, or at least have had a strong wish that it 
might occur, and have tried to hold my mind 
in a mood sufficiently receptive for it, and on 
such occasions not the slightest inclination on 
the part of Mrs. P. to handle the pencil has 
been felt, so far as I could observe. I was 



WITH MRS. PIPER 213 

beginning to feel that there must be something 
decidedly wrong somewhere: for if ever there 
was opportunity, and if ever personal associa- 
tion had anything to do with it, now was the 
time for something more of value to be brought 
to me through this particular psychic, provided, 
of course, that she was able to produce any 
writing whatever, and as to just how much she 
could do I was not at all certain. I have since 
come to the conclusion that what I would call 
opportunity, what would seem to be that from 
my limited point of view, might have no proper 
relation at all to the designs of a group of 
minds on the Other Side, engaged either as a 
group or as individuals in a scheme of work 
far greater than I was able to perceive, and 
whose range of vision must very greatly exceed 
my own. 

I am now taken into the beginning of the 
year 19 17. I do not intend to weary the 
reader with too much elaboration of the ques- 
tion whether one should or should not seek. 
I am, however, desirous of showing that during 
a few years it was a most puzzling question for 
me, and that the answer seems to involve states 
of health and states of mind of persons in the 
body quite as much as the desires of those out 
of the body to reach their friends on earth. I 
have thought best to give disconnected sentences 



214 PAST AND PRESENT 

only, not the whole of a communication coming 
on any one date. 

On the evening of Jan. 5, 19 17, the follow- 
ing was written, and it must be noted that the 
remarks are sometimes in the second person, 
sometimes in the third: 

" And for Miss R. . . . our reason for not 
calling her is because we see that there is some 
material difficulty connected with her that 
makes it difficult for her to attend much to our 
calling. . . . Not for one moment do we for- 
get you and were there not difficulties both on 
your side and on the Light's also we should 
call for you often but this ought not to be so. 
The way ought to be provided for, an easier 
way to meet us and receive what comes or 
would come were we free to call those who 
are deserving and who would seek us in 
the right way. . . . We realize more and 
more the difficulties surrounding us and that 
we must be guarded in calling for mortals 
to greet us. Our friend Hodgson has made 
this clearer to us than any spirit ever did 
before. . . . Unless some word comes back 
to us we abide our time and God's own 
time." 

This evidently called for some reply on my 



WITH MRS. PIPER 215 

part, and suggested that possibly the policy I 
had adopted of waiting to be called was wrong. 
I then prepared a note for presentation at the 
earliest opportunity, which occurred on Jan- 
uary 1 6, Miss Alta Piper being the sitter and 
reading my note to Rector. I explained that 
my daily occupation was not as pressing as 
formerly, and I even suggested a tentative 
plan, namely, that I would be in the surround- 
ings of the Light on a certain evening and if 
nothing came I would be there on the same 
evening of the following week. The reading 
of this note by Miss Alta was frequently inter- 
rupted by Rector with such remarks as the fol- 
lowing: 

" There has been much perplexity about Miss 
R. of late. We could not quite grasp her at- 
titude. 

" For many years you sought this Light and 
were never turned away but were always cared 
for, considered and advised. 

11 That sounds spontaneous and sincere. We 
could meet her on next day after this for a 
short meeting. 

" We do not intend to urge any one to seek us 
but we should be glad to have some definite 
recognition to our earnest endeavors to give 
help, light and peace." 



216 PAST AND PRESENT 

Naturally I did not fail to be present on the 
following evening, when I had a brief sitting, 
Miss Alta being present also most of the time. 
It is already understood, I think, that it is prac- 
tically impossible to publish record of sittings as 
a whole. Furthermore, as sufficient examples 
of the continuous and consecutive conversation 
between sitter and communicator have already 
been given, I have thought best to reproduce 
only such remarks as in my best judgment per- 
tain to the points I wish to make clear, or which 
are strongly characteristic of the communicator, 
or are otherwise of special interest. When- 
ever deemed necessary, omissions are indicated, 
but simple repetitions, arrangements, and ex- 
pressions of assent, are often omitted. 

Extracts from Sitting of Ja.nuary 17, 
19 17, Rector Controlling 

There seems to be some misunderstanding 
with regard to our attitude or your own for 
which there seems no adequate reason. . . . 
Come when the spirit moves and you are wel- 
come ever. We abide God's time and when 
He wills we return. We are glad to greet you 
friend. Hodgson especially says he cares lit- 
tle for lights in general but he knows a light 
when he sees one. Be on the lookout ever. 
Speak. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 217 

(I think I do understand now fully, but there 
were certainly reasons some time ago why I — ) 

Physical and otherwise material conditions, 
but that is all passing away and light is clear- 
ing. 

(You know I used to be called for my most 
important work, although if I had never sought 
in the first place I never should have found, 
and I am willing to seek now.) 

I understand, but the time comes when man 
must seek to find, and yet there are times when 
it is wiser not to seek. 

[I ask some questions about a possible fu- 
ture publication.] 

There should always be something of the 
individuality of the writer. Tests we do not 
advise so much now. They seem to be things 
of the past. . . . Hodgson is here now. 

Hodgson 

Do you for one moment believe that my 
individuality is lost or even dimmed? Not for 
one instant. There are so many revelations 
to be given it seems well worth while to listen. 
Listen, Miss Robbins. Do you think father, 
mother, sister, lover, friends, can any one for 
one moment forget? 

(No, indeed, I do not.) 

[There was a little difficulty in reading the 



218 PAST AND PRESENT 

following sentence, but I am quite sure that it 
was intended to be :] 

Awaken to the call of many voices and re- 
spond to them. There is to be a tremendous 
psychical wave pass over your world as soon 
as that terrible conflict is over. 

(Yes, but I hope we shall not have to wait 
until the War is all over.) 

Many souls have come to our side unbidden 
which have kept us very busy. 

(Yes, I understand.) 

Ah, perhaps you do not U. D. We mean 
through different channels, not this one alone. 

[It will be remembered that U. D. is their 
abbreviation for the word " understand." I 
reproduce it occasionally.] 

The whole world will then better U. D. what 
life and so-called death really mean. 

[Several messages were entrusted to me for 
delivery to other persons, and the usual fare- 
well remarks were made.] 

At this sitting, during a portion of the hour, 
Mrs. Piper seemed almost entranced, dropping 
her head on the pillows with face turned away 
from the writing pad, while at the sitting a 
week later, account of which is to follow, she 
did not appear to go into so deep an uncon- 
sciousness, had no pillows about her, and did 



WITH MRS. PIPER 219 

not drop her head or turn her face away, al- 
though she makes no attempt to read the writ- 
ing as it comes, and in fact cannot read any- 
thing without eye-glasses, which she does not 
wear during a sitting. The writing on this oc- 
casion was more than usually fluent and un- 
hindered. 

Frequent repetition of simple messages of 
remembrance or affection would be only mo- 
notonous for the reader, and hence must be 
avoided, although one of my objects in publish- 
ing any communications is to show the never 
failing memory and the remarkable fidelity of 
a " spirit " who has once promised to remem- 
ber and to help. 

.Extracts from Sitting of January 24, 
19 1 7, Rector Controlling 

-f HAIL I am Rector. Hail friend. 
We have a few words to say to you to-day but 
it will not be necessary for you to return again 
under these conditions. We should like to 
U. D. exactly conditions for this and what if 
anything is in your own thoughts about the 
near future. Rector. I. S. D. Speak. 

[The letters " I.S.D." stood for " Impera- 
tor Servus Dei ' in the early days, and the 
cross was his sign.] 

[Before I could speak or Rector could pro- 



220 PAST AND PRESENT 

ceed further the General burst in for recogni- 
tion, in his usual good-natured manner, making 
reference to a test relating to flowers in my 
house, which test appears in the record of Feb. 
25, 1916, page 198. He assures me that he 
knows violets when he sees them near me, even 
though they are not in my special room. He 
does not use the word " test," but I recognize 
his language as referring to the test I have men- 
tioned. Then large capital letters appear at 
the top of a page announcing:] 

Hodgson 

R. H. I am here hale as ever. Given those 
messages yet? 

[Quite a long conversation ensues relative 
to my delivery of messages previously received, 
and replies to same, as the controls generally 
wish to make sure from time to time that their 
commissions are executed, toward the close of 
which the following came :] 

Margaret B. sends love, etc. . . . She is 
absolutely splendid and a great friend of Wil- 
liam's and mine. [Presumably William 
James] So active, so patient, so kind and 
U. D.'g. Great helper here. Wonderful per- 
sonality altogether. She sees you as clearly 
as though she were in the body, and laughs 
right heartily to see you again so clearly in the 
mirror. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 221 

[A brief message is then sent by Margaret 
to E. A. F., and my mother put in a word. 
But I wish to make sure, before R. H. leaves, 
who Margaret is, and in response to my ques- 
tion, or really before I can complete it, the 
name " Bancroft " is written very clearly. 

For an account of M. B. and E. A. F. see 
chapter VI. It need no longer be kept a secret 
that the initials M. B. stand for Margaret 
Bancroft. Hodgson's characterization of her 
is very fine. She was considered by her 
friends quite a wonderful personality. She 
was much interested in mentally defective chil- 
dren, had quite a number of them under her 
care, taking them all into a beautiful country 
place in summer, where Dr. Hodgson used oc- 
casionally to visit her. E. A. F. succeeded her 
in this charge. She and William James were 
personally acquainted in life. There is an in- 
teresting account of Hodgson's relation with 
Miss Bancroft in his alleged communications 
in Pr. S. P. R. XXIII, at the beginning of the 
sitting of Jan. 16, 1906.] 

Hyram. 

[Written very large, and the capital H de- 
cidedly in the old style.] 

(Yes, Hiram, and that is your capital H, I 
know. ) 

Good. I thought I would add something 



222 PAST AND PRESENT 

you could recognize well. H H is High- 
ram's. 

(I always did recognize it, that particular 
letter.) 

[" Hiram" has been spelled variously at 
various times, partly I think in fun. The " let- 
ter H w incident goes back many years and is 
deserving of attention inasmuch as this com- 
municator was actually the first one to use a 
pencil in Mrs. Piper's hand, as admitted by 
Dr. Hodgson, the very earliest attempt being 
on July 2, 1888. See Pr. S. P. R. XXXIII, p. 

339-1 

Good, now speak. 

[I ask some question about the future, as- 
suming I am still addressing Hiram, and then 
I say:] 

(Is this Hiram talking?) 

No, Rector. He just popped in and out 
again. 

[Another illustration of a spirit friend de- 
termined to get in a word while the light is 
burning. In answer to my question as to 
whether I shall return for another sitting, the 
reply is:] 

Not at present. We were desirous of clear- 
ing up the situation. Our work is only just 
beginning. . . . You seemed to be perplexed 



WITH MRS. PIPER 223 

about us and we could not quite U. D. what 
you were thinking about if you had faith. 

[There is more talk on this line, needless to 
repeat, but in the course of which Rector uses 
the expression, " Seek and ye shall find." Re- 
ferring to my business surroundings, I say:] 

(Do you see me there much longer?) 

Not so. After the conflict is over you will 
be called elsewhere. 

(You mean the War?) 

Yes, wars. There will be others follow — 

(Follow where?) [Not immediately catch- 
ing the meaning] — these, cannot help it. 

[I call attention to the fact that the date of 
this sitting was about a week previous to the 
severing of diplomatic relations between the 
United States and Germany.] 

Just look at Grace if you have lost faith, 
and see what is what. Do not forget that we 
are activities directed by God. Cannot our 
power be felt? Ask Grace, she will U. D. 
She is remarkable in understanding. 

(Yes, I will. I often feel that I can learn 
from her.) 

She is almost in touch with us and yet she 
does not really know it. And we constantly 
give out to her. She and Pickett will both 
understand, he on this side and she on that. 



224 PAST AND PRESENT 

I. S. D. is looking after her. She sat with a 
light not long ago and he saw her but could not 
actually speak. 

(You mean I. S. D. saw her?) 

Yes. 

(Is that the Light she went to for medical 
advice?) 

Yes. 

[My sister had, during the late winter and 
spring of 19 16-17, had several sittings with the 
well known medical medium, Mrs. Butler of 
Boston. Mrs. Piper, I think, knew the fact. 
Pickett is the spirit elsewhere spoken of as 
Alanson, he having the two uncommon names.] 

(Do you think that Light helped her?) 

Yes, we know she did. Do not be too sure 
and wise ever. God is wiser. He knows 
when and how to give help, and through what 
source. Better listen to God and see how He 
helps her. He knows the way, and while you 
understand she receives. 

(I understand intellectually, or try to, and 
she receives spiritually?) 

Yes. You are wise enough but just stop and 
receive. 

(I will try.) 

[I make inquiry as to whether or not I shall 
probably make further publication of my 
notes.] 



WITH MRS. PIPER 225 

Yes, and if you do not listen we shall be 
after you. We shall not let the pen lie idle. 
We are determined to make you what you 
ought to be. Don't think it too late. Noth- 
ing can be too late. . . . But there is no time 
to be lost in troubling about time going. Let 
that take care of itself and keep jotting down 
and it will soon get into form. Machine out 
of order. 

[This sounds like Hodgson rather than Rec- 
tor. We stopped a moment, wondering 
whether " machine M in this case meant Mrs. 
Piper.] 

No, you had some difficulty at office, the Gen- 
eral said. 

(Oh, do you mean / was out of order for a 
time?) 

Yes, quite, and all upset. 

[It is quite true that there was, in the recent 
past, a period during which I was quite far 
from my normal empire sur moi } though never 
so far from it that I could not continue very 
regularly my daily occupation.] 

[In connection with the talk about my sister, 
who was at the time living with me, I ought to 
explain that on the evening previous to date of 
sitting I had mentioned to her that I expected 
to go to Mrs. Piper's on the following evening. 
I did not see her on the day of the sitting, and 



226 PAST AND PRESENT 

not until I returned home late that night. She 
then told me that on that very morning she had 
made an appeal that some word be sent to her; 
in substance she said that she appealed to 
Pickett, her husband, first, and mentally said 
to him emphatically that she wanted either him 
or some one to give her something in the shape 
of a message. Her mental appeal, it will be 
noted, met with full response.] 

[Toward the close of the sitting I said:] 

(All this last talk that I have had was really 
from Rector, was it not?) 

Yes, and Madame [written Me.] G. came 
in to give light, spiritual light. She is won- 
derful and we owe much to her. She has 
helped us bridge the chasm. 

(Is she on your side like a medium on this 
side?) 

Yes, only a Saint in reality, a real Saint. 
Her help is beyond comprehension. 

[Farewell messages and signatures follow.] 

" Seek and ye shall find." Shall we? 
While I was hoping that some definite arrange- 
ment might once more be made for further 
sittings,, I am again told that I must await the 
pleasure of the controls. They speak of diffi- 
culties both on my side and on that of the Light, 
their perplexity in regard to my attitude, time 



WITH MRS. PIPER 227 

a necessity, waiting till the War is over, lack of 
faith, machine out of order, etc., etc. Their 
words suggest the probability that many more 
things than have heretofore been taken into 
consideration enter into the question of com- 
munication between those who have passed be- 
yond our ken and ourselves. In the case of 
Mrs. Piper it has wisely, in fact I may say of 
necessity, been left to the controls themselves 
to say whom they would be willing to meet and 
when. 

But, whatever our minor disappointments 
may be, surely no one can doubt that, if we 
take the words in the sense in which He who 
spoke them meant them, the promise that if 
we seek we shall find must remain eternally 
true. 



XI 

THE THREE PSYCHIC STATES 
1917 

• 

It seems that I was not to wait long for an- 
other call, for Rector sent me word that he 
would meet me for a few minutes again, and on 
Feb. 14 I was present, with Miss Alta Piper. 
Instead of being for a few minutes only, the 
sitting was long, Mrs. Piper writing with ap- 
parent ease and vigor for about two hours. A 
large portion of the time was taken up with 
explanations to me of certain states or condi- 
tions of the Light which the personalities were 
to produce or experiment with in the future, 
subject to change if necessary. As verbatim 
report of this portion of the sitting was soon 
sent to Sir Oliver Lodge in England, who repre- 
sents the Society, I will not offer it in detail 
here, except to say that it was made clear to 
me, with emphasis, that in the future there 
would be three distinct states or conditions of 
the Light : 

228 



WITH MRS. PIPER 229 

First, the ordinary state in which the invol- 
untary writing had of late been produced, need- 
ing no further explanation. 

Second, a state similar to trance, yet not 
really a trance condition. This was to be il- 
lustrated at the next meeting. A definite term 
was applied to this condition, but as it was to 
be a code word between Dr. Hodgson and my- 
self, I will not mention it here. 

Third, the impressionable state, which would 
be illustrated at the third meeting. 

It was stated that messages would be given as 
clearly and concisely as were ever given in days 
that had passed. 

In regard to the second state, it was said that 
this would enable all communicators to see that 
no harm befalls the Light as an instrument for 
their operation. " The hearing and all meth- 
ods of receiving questions and giving replies 
will be just as clear and accurate as though we 
entranced the Light, and all messages trans- 
mitted will be as definite and reliable as ever, 
and we consider more so." It was said that 
the deeper trance state would not be necessary. 

Hodgson impressed it upon me that I was 
not to mention the term applied to the second 
state in the presence of any other light, but 
that if it was mentioned by any other light to 
me I might know that he was present. He 



230 PAST AND PRESENT 

also stated that he and Myers had been discus- 
sing the subject a good deal of late. 

The latter portion of the hour for the sit- 
ting was taken up mostly with personal talk to 
myself, messages to friends of mine being given, 
brief mention of which will be all that is necs- 
sary at this time. 

As I have before stated, my sister Mrs. 
Moore, although not present at the sittings, 
never having attended but one in her life, and 
that in the old days when Mrs. Piper used to 
go into the deep trance, seems to be particularly 
well favored with specially clear messages, and 
I am therefore recording perhaps more about 
her than about any other one friend. She had 
two husbands, both of them now long on the 
Other Side. The first one was much older 
than she, a very beautiful character, a pillar in 
the orthodox Congregational church, but in all 
probability knowing little or nothing about 
modern spiritualism or Psychical Reasearch. 
Although there have been occasional references 
to him or words from him in the past, he has 
not been a frequent communicator, and not an 
especially clear one, until on this occasion he 
announced himself very clearly indeed, Mrs. 
Piper spelling the name, in capital letters, 
slowly but carefully, STANLEY. He re- 



WITH MRS. PIPER 231 

ferred to the very happy life he. and my sister 
had had together, and made the clear distinc- 
tion between himself and the younger man, 
mentioning the latter by one of his odd names. 
There was no doubt in my mind that he was 
present, if any old friend ever is present. 

The " boy Harold " who shot himself with 
an old rickety gun, came in very brightly for a 
moment, hastening to say that it was an acci- 
dent pure and simple, and trying to make me 
recall one or two incidents connected with the 
old home. He sent love to his father, mother 
and young brother, and seemed so earnest when 
he said: "I want you to remember me al- 
ways ; don't forget me even though you do not 
see me." 

Oh these boys and these young men who are 
called suddenly to the Other Side ! How 
bright and strong and happy they are, and how 
eager to penetrate the veil! 

A most interesting incident occurred on this 
occasion, after the sitting was to all appear- 
ances over. Mrs. Piper was still sitting at the 
writing table, Miss Alta and I were gathering 
up the sheets of paper, talking casually. I 
think fully ten minutes had elapsed when Mrs. 
Piper suddenly seized the pencil again and 
wrote, vigorously: 



232 PAST AND PRESENT 

Who said Phinuit was bad he was not I have 
found him and will explain it all later. R. H. 

The dear old Phinuit control of early Piper 
days, who made so many friends, yet whose 
character was so much of a puzzle, and whose 
former life on this earth is still so much of a 
mystery. Had Hodgson really found him, and 
had he been searching for him from 1905 to 
19 17? Or was the finding accidental? 

In the latter part of the following April 
came still another brief reassuring communica- 
tion, several of my friends being mentioned, 
and the promise made that I. S. D. would call 
to clear up difficulties. " God is in the conflict 
and will clear His own," was written. Pre- 
sumably the conflict means the Great War. 
Nothing more was received by me, however, 
for a long, long time, and no special reference 
has been made to the distinction between the 
three psychic states. What may have been 
said to others I have no means of knowing. 



XII 

REPEATED ASSURANCES 
1918, 1919 

On January 6, 191 8, the following was re- 
ceived, typewritten copy being handed to me 
some ten days later: 

11 To Miss Robbins. Why say you are for- 
gotten? Not so, my friend, you are remem- 
bered by all. There is an elderly lady who 
sends her love and rejoices at her awakening in 
this life; her name begins with ' S ' but this is 
as far as she speaks, but will become more fa- 
miliar later when we shall be very glad to as- 
sist her in delivering her messages. Mean- 
while, Hiram, Mother, Laura, Alanson and the 
General, all send love. Good-by for the pres- 
ent. Your old friend, Hodgson." 

I was quite delighted to hear from the lady 
S. Although absolutely nothing was given in 
the way of identification, my thought imme- 
diately settled upon an old and very dear friend 

233 



234 PAST AND PRESENT 

by name Mrs. Spencer, whom years ago I 
named as one of my Boston mothers, and who 
passed away in 19 14. She lived to be ninety- 
two years old, a woman who had " grown old 
gracefully." She was not specially interested 
in modern spiritualism, but she had a philosoph- 
ical mind and a firm faith in a future, without 
curiosity as to what kind of a life it was to be. 
She and I had had many a conversation on life's 
problems. I was not in the least expecting that 
she would return, though I felt that she cared 
enough for me, and was brave enough and 
faithful enough to at least make an effort to 
confirm my faith in the possibility of communi- 
cation. Her coming adds one more to the long 
list of persons near to me in life who have from 
time to time during the course of the years 
apparently endeavored to reach me from the 
Other Side of the Veil. 

In March a brief and reassuring message 
came from the General, and in the latter part 
of 19 1 8 and the early months of 19 19 came at 
intervals from the controls remarks from which 
I select the following: 

" We, understanding the conditions better 
than at other times, are no longer calling for 
any one to come to the Light. We do not wish 
to compromise either ourselves or the Light, 



WITH MRS. PIPER 235 

and we find the material condition of mind of a 
larger number of mortals such that to bring 
them here would be as unwise as it would be 
unfair. This applies to no one in particular, 
but thinking we should like, for various rea- 
sons, to make this clear to Miss R., we desire 
to send it with our love and greetings. 

11 Could Miss R. understand she would real- 
ize that while she is by no means forgotten, we 
urge nothing, and all mortals must ask; other- 
wise time may not be given even to those who 
are under our care." 

All of which indicates still more confusion in 
the matter of whether to seek or not seek, which 
I cannot satisfactorily explain, although several 
factors of the situation may throw some light. 
I think there were some strangers who were 
anxious for sittings, and discrimination had to 
be used as to who should be allowed. Mrs. 
Piper's power of involuntary writing without 
trance was apparently growing stronger. The 
time of the two daughters, as well as her own, 
was much taken up with other matters, and it 
was difficult for them to keep necessary records. 
As for myself, I certainly did not feel the 
strong need or the eagerness for getting into 
communication with those on the Other Side 
which I experienced in my younger days; not, 



236 PAST AND PRESENT 

however, because of doubt, which occasionally 
I suppose assails even the strongest minds, but 
rather because my faith in the continuance of 
my own personal life after death, and in the 
reunion with those whom I love, had become, 
as it were, a settled thing; and perhaps because 
I realize more and more fully as life progresses 
that, when the outward life of the present hour 
conforms or somewhere nearly conforms to our 
highest inward perception, satisfaction, peace, 
and even a measure of joy result. We can 
then trust for the future. 

Early in this year, 19 19, also came for my 
sister the following, which did not even pass 
through my hands as messenger, but was de- 
livered to her in person by those in charge : 

" Mother, Laura, father and two gentlemen 
send loving greetings and words of encourage- 
ment that she may continue to grow spiritually, 
going on and on in the mortal life, reaching out 
to attain the highest. Our love never wanes 
for a moment and some day such a greeting, 
such a joyous welcome awaits her no tongue 
can express and no pen portray. Love always. 

Alanson 
Rector 
I. S. D." 



WITH MRS. PIPER 237 

I must still repeat that, for a person who 
has rarely sought any medium, to receive from 
out of the blue such an assurance, accompanied 
by three signatures which have the greatest 
significance for her, is unusual, to say the least, 
and offers much food for thought on the in- 
teresting question: Do our friends remember 
or do they forget? 



XIII 

MY BROTHER JOHN 
1920 

Early in the spring of 1920 I felt very 
strongly impressed that I must if possible once 
more get into personal touch with my invisible 
friends through the gateway which had marvel- 
ously opened for me so many times in the past, 
and through which I had caught so many 
glimpses of the Beyond. Also the time seemed 
to me ripe to make some use of the notes which 
I had conscientiously kept for a decade, if ever 
they were to be of any help to others. I there- 
fore made urgent request for a sitting, and an 
appointment was made for the evening of April 
15, Rector having been consulted. As to the 
matter of time, the controls, although seeming 
to prefer what they call the morning of our 
day, have in my case always been mindful of 
the fact that I have duties which take my time 
during the day, and have been willing to ar- 
range for an hour suited to my convenience. 

The sitting lasted about an hour and three- 

238 



WITH MRS. PIPER 239 

quarters. Mrs. Piper, though supposedly in 
her normal condition, seemed to me slightly 
dazed and under control, even for some time 
before the writing began, and throughout the 
entire hour scarcely uttered a word, at one 
point simply asking me to call her daughter. 
The daughter was not present at the opening 
of the sitting, but came in once, remaining a 
few moments, and again at the close. 

I saw at once that the writing was coming 
easily, and therefore, in order to get as much 
as possible of it unbroken, I refrained from 
much speaking myself, or from making reply 
until it seemed positively necessary. The sen- 
sitive hand that was doing the writing often 
held itself to my face, as if inquiring whether 
I understood, or listening to what I had to 
say. If I nodded assent without speaking, the 
writing proceeded. 

As I have stated elsewhere, the abbreviations 
"U. D." and " U. D'g" seem to be a great 
convenience to the controlling spirit, and are 
frequently used. Many times they occur at 
the close of a sentence, as if simply to inquire 
of the sitter as to whether the sentence is un- 
derstood. I have thought best in what fol- 
lows to use the word itself in most instances, or 
to omit the expression altogether when not 
needed, also to insert punctuation, in order to 



240 PAST AND PRESENT 

make the meaning clear to the reader not fa- 
miliar with these technicalities. 

After the usual opening greetings from the 
controls, and before I had uttered a word my- 
self, there came communications purporting to 
be from my brother, words which, considering 
they are from a spirit newly passed to the 
Other Side, and are, moreover, somewhat em- 
phatic in their nature, not to speak of their be- 
ing characteristic, I am tempted to give 
connectedly, allowing explanations and corro- 
borations to follow the record. 

I will therefore simply say that my brother 
met with an automobile accident on October 3, 
19 19, did not regain consciousness, and died on 
October 5. Harold will be recognized as his 
.oldest son, long on the Other Side. Richard 
was the youngest son, eleven years old at the 
death of his father, whose special charge he was 
during the larger portion of those years. Both 
are referred to earlier in this volume. My 
father and mother, as has already appeared, 
are both on the Other Side. 

Extracts from Sitting of April 15, 1920 
Rector controlling 

+ + HAIL. I am Rector. Hail, 
friend of earth. Greetings again. Where 
hast thou been, friend? Do not allow any 



WITH MRS. PIPER 241 

earthly sentiments, feelings, thoughts or condi- 
tions to prevent communication when your own 
spirit calls. No material condition should be 
permitted to interfere. Our love, our ever 
abiding faith in our Heavenly F ather is 
such that nothing can disturb when we call. 
Friend, your spirit heard and you responded. 
We greet you with peace and joy. HAIL 
once more. 

Me. G. ^ [her special sign] 

Rector 
"+ + I. S. D. 

Here is a new spirit, Harold's father. 
Well ! well ! Of all things imaginable I never 
dreamed that you were right. I thought a lit- 
tle place had become vacant in your brain. But 
I admit that I was the weak one, and you the 
reverse. Hello ! How goes your spirits now? 
I said one day, you don't know anything except 
about spirits, and that doesn't amount to any- 
thing. I am sorry enough that I did not better 
understand. 

Hold up your head. Rector. I am speak- 
ing to him. I can't catch your words. 

[A clear example of a spirit, new to the pro- 
cess of communication, trying to talk through 
Rector, Rector telling him how to hold his 
head, then explaining to sitter that he was 



242 PAST AND PRESENT 

addressing spirit, and all getting recorded.] 

I know I was silly, but never mind. I am 
with my boy and so much happier and better off 
than ever before. God bless you, Anne. 
John. Speak to me a moment just to let me 
know that all is now understood. J. 

(John, I am perfectly delighted to hear from 
you, and do you know, I thought you would 
come, but I was not thinking of you at this mo- 
ment.) 

Rector said, come along and free your mind, 
I'll help you. So here I am with our dear 
mother, Harold and Laura, father too. 

(A real family gathering?) 

You bet. Where is Grace? Tell her I un- 
derstand her better also, and I don't blame her 
for blaming me. She was right in fighting for 
her rights, good old girl. I feel it all so keenly 
now. What an old fool I was to stick to a 
shingle when I ought to have done differently ! 
She did just right, and I do not hesitate to say 
so. Please tell her and make me happy. I 
was so self-willed, I see it all now. 

(I certainly will tell her. She will be very 
much pleased to get your message. John, do 
you remember where you were when you told 
me that I did not know much of anything except 
about spirits?) 

City Boston Hartford [the word " Hart- 



WITH MRS. PIPER 243 

ford ' superimposed on the word " Boston v 
as if in correction] I recall home at home we 
were [finger pointing to mean " we were at 
home "] Hill home Home Hill he is trying 
to say some kind of Hill but I do not quite un- 
derstand. R. 

(Never mind, Rector — ) 

Better help him here to avoid confusion. 

(Do you mean Rocky Hill?) 

[Excitement] 

Rector Hill Rector Hill It sounded so much 
like my own name I could not understand. R. 

I thought we were there. 

(Yes, we were at home. Do you remember 
where we were sitting?) 

Under tree near granite wall. Yard in yard 
steps door steps door steps sitting on them. 

(That is right, on the old front steps.) 

Yes, stone wall in front trees near road. 

(That is splendid and that will do. What 
else have you to say?) 

Big heaps of things but cannot say all at 
once } only I do admit my mistakes now. How 
poor old Grace did feel, and I am sorry I was 
so stubborn. Tell her mother said I ought to 
be spanked for my conduct. Father said, 
John, you were a handful and a half when a 
boy; did not improve with age, father says. 

Never mind, how is R. ? He is a chip of his 



24* PAST AND PRESENT 

dad. I am afraid he is. But he will come out 
all right and make a fine chap if I have any- 
thing to do with it now. 

Better tell him some little thing or say some- 
thing to help him at the moment. R. 

(John, little R. is all right. He is in a good 
school in Hartford, and says he is happy. I 
think he is being well cared for and trained.) 

I know he is. Thank you for that, and ac- 
cept my love and pass it on to Grace. I never 
could say much about love, but I found it 
here. 

(I am glad to hear that, for I think you 
craved it here.) 

Indeed, yes, you understand. I see you un- 
derstand all better than I did or thought you 
did. I must go soon. Meanwhile I am not 
to be forgotten, don't forget that. J. 

[The word " understand " in the lines just 
preceding might of course have been meant 
for " understood." No way of distinguish- 
ing.] 

(John, just one thing more. What is the 
name of your little boy?) 

R [written slowly and very large, then the 
rest of the word scrawled quickly] Richard. 

[Then large circles, as if satisfied and 
pleased] 



WITH MRS. PIPER 245 

(All right, all right.) 
Dick, the boys call him. I hear them. 
(Yes, I think they do.) 

Adieu. You were right and now I admit 
it all. 
(Adieu.) 



My brother John was a stubborn, self-willed, 
argumentative, incorrigible skeptic. I do not 
hesitate to attribute these characteristics to 
him, since he has now, in my belief, freely ad- 
mitted them himself, and since I can as freely 
and truthfully say that he also possessed offset- 
ting good traits, as I believe most skeptics do. 
He was generous, free, exceedingly fond of 
children, and prided himself on keeping his 
word. We were two of a triplet. Whether 
the blood bond between twins and triplets is 
stronger than that among other brothers and 
sisters, I do not know r . I have always thought 
not, but that the strength of the bond depends 
more upon association than upon birth blood. 
However that may be, I am conscious that deep 
down in my nature there has always been a 
strong affection for my brother, which has per- 
sisted independent of any conduct or words on 
his part of which I might have disapproved, 



246 PAST AND PRESENT 

and independent of association: for our lives 
since childhood have run in entirely different 
channels, and we have met only occasionally. 
I have always felt that in case of need on my 
part, an appeal to him would of a surety meet 
w T ith response, and the assistance would be given 
if it were in his power to give it, even though 
the need were associated with a subject with 
which he really had no sympathy. He has 
given me direct proof of this. I knew that he 
believed in me if not in what I believed. 

As for spiritualism, he might have thought, 
as he says, that a little place in my brain had 
become vacant, but if he thought so he did not 
say so. 

In corroboration of the bit of evidence com- 
ing so voluntarily, I will say that a long time 
ago, probably ten years, he and I were one day 
sitting on the front steps of the old homestead 
in Rocky Hill, Conn., a few miles below the 
city of Hartford. This was a favorite resting 
place, and commanded a view of fertile fields 
and pasture lands and of the western sky. He 
propounded to me some question on a subject 
with which I could not have been expected to 
be familiar. As I remember, he wanted to see 
how near I could come to a correct estimate of 
the value of certain lands and property which 
lay in front of us. I made a guess at the an- 



WITH MRS. PIPER 247 

swer, which proved to be very wide of the mark. 
He laughed and said, in these exact words as 
nearly as I can remember them, and I am sure 
that my memory in this case is quite accurate, 
— " You don't know much about anything, do 
you, except spiritualism, and that don't amount 
to anything." The instant Rector began to 
write this test sentence, the incident came clearly 
to my mind. 

In regard to the locality, it was very plain to 
me that he knew the locality, and that he was 
trying to make it clear to Rector. Whether 
he recalled it piece by piece, as the broken 
words indicate, or whether he saw it clearly and 
it was a matter of getting it through to Rector 
and of Rector's getting it through to me, I can- 
not of course say. 

Back of where we sat was the high brick 
wall of the house. The yard was not large, 
but there were large trees in it, overshadowing 
the steps. Just the other side of these trees 
there was originally an old fashioned stone 
wall. Just what date that was removed, I do 
not remember. Beyond that was a driveway, 
parallel with the wall, then another row of 
large trees, then the main highway. 

My brother's references to my living sister 
Grace are most pertinent, and he may well have 
wanted to ask her pardon for misdoings in the 



248 PAST AND PRESENT 

past. I do not know to just what he refers, 
and it is immaterial, but I know that at one 
time they disagreed as to the disposal of some 
old family relics, and my brother was deter- 
mined to have his way. He may have recalled 
some small article which he wanted to possess, 
when he speaks of " sticking to a shingle." 

In regard to the little boy Richard, by refer- 
ence to page 207 it will be seen what a close 
and rather unusual bond there was between the 
two. But the boy, as he grew older, I think 
must have been developing some of his father's 
independence of spirit, and certainly could not 
be blamed for it: for his father was his daily 
example. At any rate, the father in the spirit 
world now thinks the little one a " chip of his 
dad." Perhaps in the Great Wisdom it was 
better that this association should have been 
broken just when it was: for the child, soon 
after his father's death, was placed by his 
mother in a good school where the necessary 
discipline was to be had. I still think, how- 
ever, that the boy is one of the sixth race, if 
there be such a sixth race forming, and that 
time will prove this belief to have been true. 

Mrs. Piper never saw my brother, and knew 
nothing of his character. There was no oc- 
casion for her knowing about it, and no reason 
why she should have been told. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 249 

I trust I may be pardoned for giving this 
corroboration in what may seem to some un- 
necessary length and detail: for in all my long 
experience I do not remember an instance of 
spirit return more obviously characteristic and 
evidential, and my only regret is that I cannot 
make all the circumstances and all the relation- 
ships as clear to others as they are to myself. 



XIV 

CONCLUSION 
1920 

The latter portion of the sitting, account of 
which is initiated in the preceding chapter, was 
taken up by several old communicators, Rich- 
ard Hodgson appearing first, but the spelling 
of my name in the rapid writing looks more 
like " Richards " than anything else. If it was 
meant for that, it was apparently a reflex from 
the name just preceding in the writing. He 
manifests the same characteristics as formerly, 
bursting in like a sudden shot, and using em- 
phatic expressions, though on the whole his 
peculiar mannerisms seem modified and sub- 
dued, as though he had mastered the art of 
control, and perhaps had gotten farther away 
from earthly things. He said: 

Well, well, Miss Robbins, are you my friend? 
R. H. 

(Of course, don't you know that?) 

250 



WITH MRS. PIPER 251 

How goes our work? How are you getting 
on? Never mind gray days. What do they 
amount to, any way? 

(Nothing, absolutely nothing.) 

Cheer up and never allow yourself to get 
down in any case. You need spiritual help, 
light and uplift occasionally. Every mortal 
does, and if church doesn't give it, something 
else must. 

I told him that I came to speak about my 
work, and we then carried on quite a long con- 
versation about publication. I read to him a 
brief resume of my records, and he interrupted 
from time to time, approving or adding a word 
of comment. When I said that the important 
thing in life was to develop one's own spiritual 
nature, which in the long run, while not de- 
stroying faith, makes dependence upon actual 
communication wane, he interrupted with : 

Good again! I approve heartily, as spirit- 
ual growth is the key note to communication 
with God and all individuals or personalities 
on our side. 

I referred to the matter of publication, as to 
whether it was best to publish in New York or 
Boston, and I mentioned the names of certain 
Boston publishers who might accept what I had 
to offer. The reply from Hodgson was: 



252 PAST AND PRESENT 

They are good, but another place will take 
it. My old friend Holt will help you. ... I 
advise Holt's advice and help. 

This reference by the Hodgson control to his 
old friend was entirely out of the blue, so far 
as I was concerned: for, while I had had in 
mind the names of several publishers to whom 
I might apply, the person referred to was not 
one of them, and I certainly never knew that 
he was one whom Hodgson would specially 
name as his " old friend." 

I continued: 

(I was in hopes that I might get something 
to-night in the way of communication that 
would be perfectly splendid.) 

Give us time. We cannot fly in an airplane, 
as Raymond does to catch up with his father's 
plans. 

It may be remembered that it was this very 
winter that Sir Oliver Lodge came to the 
United States on his now famous lecturing tour, 
going back and forth from big city to big city, 
arousing much interest in the subject of con- 
tinued life after death and the evidence there- 
for, and calling forth criticism, favorable and 
otherwise, from the press of the entire country, 



WITH MRS. PIPER 253 

from one coast to the other. He was at the 
moment of this sitting supposed to be some- 
where on the Pacific shore, or on his way back 
to the Atlantic. His son Raymond, on the 
Other Side, might well have had difficulty in 
following his father closely except in an air- 
plane, or by some other invisible means of trans- 
portation yet unknown to our world. At any 
rate, the reference is extremely pertinent. 

The two communicators known as Hiram 
and the General both put in a word, the former 
speaking briefly, but assuring me that he was 
the u very same yesterday, to-day and to-mor- 
row." This communicator dates back to 1886. 
The second one dates back to 1903. The Gen- 
eral seems to have been often present and as- 
sisting other spirits: for he said my mother 
sent her love, and after asking a question relat- 
ing to the physical condition of my sister Grace, 
and receiving advice, I said: " Is this mother 
saying this? " and the reply was, " Yes, through 
the General as assistant." Then came the 
words : 

We do know the best way out of difficulties. 
Cannot you see how we want to obviate diffi- 
culties? 

(Yes, I can, and I think she sees still more 
clearly.) 



254 PAST AND PRESENT 

More spiritually, certainly. Yes, friend, 
this is our meaning exactly. Now speak and 
say what you please. 

[This was evidently by Rector.] 

(Before the time goes I would like to know 
if Richard Hodgson or any one else has any- 
thing special to say that I should print?) 

Philosophy leave out, criticism also. Leave 
all with open-mindedness and precision. Let 
mortals analyze and criticize as they see fit, so 
to express it. . . . Do not try to overdo any- 
thing. Just keep calmly working on the 
growth of our subject and its exceedingly per- 
sistent working out of God's own laws. You 
have grown stronger in determination, under- 
standing, and yet you began by picking up the 
half-open buds. Now the leaves are fully 
grown and you hold them in the hollow of your 
hand. U. D. our meaning? 

(Yes, I do, and I am pleased to have you 
think so.) 

We speak not idly but with understanding 
and wisdom. 

• • • • • • 

It is growing dim. I am going soon. But 
before I leave remember the dominating fac- 
tors in your life are faith, trust, hope, love, 
peace and understanding, not forgetting pa- 
tience and perseverance, friend. These are the 



WITH MRS. PIPER 255 

keynotes to all things beautiful. May God 
in his loving wisdom, mercy and goodness be 
with, watch over, guide and keep you in His 
holy keeping! Never falter, never fail, and 
nothing will ever fail you. Hearest thou me? 
(I hear all. Please sign now for these last 
words.) 

G* + + R.— I. S. D. 

Farewell and may all joys be thine! Ever- 
lasting love and the continual guidance of your 
faithful friends as above registered. 

(I am exceedingly obliged. I will not tax 
you more unless you wish.) 

It only remains to add in reference to this 
sitting, that I enjoyed it immensely: for it 
seemed to be fully as good as many sittings of 
the earlier days, if not better, and the ma- 
chinery of communication was much more easily 
handled. 

Mrs. Piper's peculiar gift, then, still exists, 
and is in demand by persons newly interested 
in the subject, or to whom the phenomena are 
new, yet being permanently under contract with 
the Society for Psychical Research, she feels 
obliged to conform to their wishes and advice 
in regard to the exercise of her gift, and the 
work naturally must be more or less restricted 



256 PAST AND PRESENT 

to the end that it shall not interfere too much 
with her normal life, which normal life she 
thoroughly enjoys. In fact, she appears to- 
day to be in excellent health and spirits, and as 
illustration, or in confirmation, of this, I am 
tempted to quote a few words, apparently writ- 
ten on the impulse of the moment, included in 
a friendly note of invitation addressed to me 
under date of April 14, 1920, in anticipation 
of which I will once more make it plain that 
for a long period my daily occupation has taken 
me to the Massachusetts State Capitol, where 
I have sat beneath the structure once wittily 
dubbed by one of Boston's best loved poets 
" the hub of the universe." My residence has 
been nearby, Mrs. Piper's being several miles 
from this center, though still within the city 
limits. 
She says: 

11 Isn't this a lovely, balmy day! Although 
a little cool it reminds one that Dame Nature is 
already arousing from her long sleep. The 
buds are bursting into a delicate shade of green 
and the robins are again with us, in fact every- 
thing bespeaks the approaching Spring. I pic- 
ture you wending your way back and forth from 
the gilded dome on Beacon Hill, taking your 
part in the business life of our interesting city. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 257 

Yet by no means are you deprived of the ex- 
quisite touches of Spring that are to be seen 
on Boston Common. One must be adamant 
indeed who does not feel the change from the 
long, cold, stormy New England winter. Yet 
/ did not mind the winter because I love na- 
ture. I simply love it in all its; phases." 

After what I have written about her, and 
what she here writes of herself, if mediumship 
is to be judged by its leading example, it must 
be normal if anything is. 

Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 
April, 1920. 

My book was to end at this point, but while 
my manuscript was in the hands of the printer 
another sitting took place, an account of which 
I think should be included here, thus bringing 
my record up to the close of 1920. The op- 
portunity for this sitting came as a great sur- 
prise to me, for Mrs. Piper had not returned 
to her city residence for the winter, and I had 
not seen her all summer. It appears, how- 
ever, that on November 10, 1920, the follow- 
ing message came : 

" John wishes to speak — young man — 
wishes to speak with his sister. There are 
some things on his mind which he would be 



258 PAST AND PRESENT 

glad to have an opportunity to give voice to. 
He wishes to free his mind. His name is John 
and his sister Anne. But we are not sure of 
the conditions nor the consequences. 

" This message to be sent without delay. At- 
tend to this at once. R. H." 

I assume that the first paragraph of this mes- 
sage came through the regular control, and 
that Richard Hodgson stepped in and gave the 
order that the matter be attended to without 
delay. While the actual script did not come 
into my hands for some considerable time, its 
substance was promptly communicated to me, 
and opportunity for a sitting was offered at the 
earliest possible date. 

After the usual words of greeting from Rec- 
tor, my brother put in an appearance and re- 
mained the principal communicator during al- 
most the entire hour. Conversation was car- 
ried on between us practically without inter- 
ruption, except for an occasional misunder- 
standing in the reading of the script. There 
were references to different members of his 
family, and one quite good test about an " old 
gray horse " which he once owned and which 
I barely remembered, the detailed description 
of which has since been fully confirmed to me 
by one of his sons. I shall, however, omit 



WITH MRS. PIPER 259 

most of these references and give as connect- 
edly as possible the conversation on points 
which I think may be of general interest. 



EXTRACTS FROM SITTING OF NOV. 1 6, 192O 

Rector controlling 
• •••••• 

Well, well, Anne, hello ! This is John. 
Don't you know me? Heavens! I am glad 
to see you again here in this very way. I 
know all that has been going on, but a thou- 
sand didn't seem to compare with the happi- 
ness Harold and I found. I heard you talking 
it all over and I just sat back and laughed and 
laughed. But you were kind and I am truly 
glad you were helpful when you were needed. 
Tell me if you do not think I am doing well and 
helping Richard in his school work. Can't you 
hear me? Mother says, " Go on, John, my 
boy, do not stop until your mind is freer ; then 
I'll come in and send my love to my own." 

(John, go on and say all you want to. I 
want to know if you think it was because I 
had so many friends over there that you were 
able to come so soon?) 

Yes, and that only was why I was so clear. 
I never found anything like this before and 
never hope to again. You were so much wiser 



260 PAST AND PRESENT 

than I, I cannot get over it yet. I was pretty 
stubborn about it, wasn't I? 

(Yes, indeed, you were.) 

I am sorry but I have already atoned for it, 
and now I want to tell you something about 
my own feeling and experiences here. First, 
Harold met me and took me into the coolest 
atmosphere I ever was in, and all was so light 
and clear, but it smelt like ether to me, and 
Harold said, " Father, do you know where you 
are?" I said, " Yes, asleep, I think; am I 
dreaming?" " No, father, you are in the 
spiritual world. Come and let's talk it all 
over." My head seemed a bit confused, but 
almost immediately it began to dawn upon me 
that I had actually come to the world of spirits. 
Really, Anne, I can never really tell you what 
a joy it was to me to recall our conversations 
about this very world, and then I looked back 
through the opening and saw you all dark still. 
I was thunderstruck, and then I began to speak 
to you, but you slept on and on, and would not 
reply until a doctor found me and said, " Come 
here, my friend, I'll show you how to speak." 
And then I told him I wished to finish what I 
wished to say. He said, " Attend to this at 
once while he is clear." So here I am ready 
to explain my own weaknesses and difficulties in 
following what I thought was in your life hal- 



WITH MRS. PIPER 261 

lucination, but if you knew how ashamed I am 
of it now you would accept my apology for my 
stubbornness. What have you got to say about 
that, Anne? 

(John, I think I understood you when you 
were in this life, and I knew that light would 
come to you some time, so all I had to do was 
to be patient. Now may I ask a question?) 

Yes, speak to me as you would if you could 
see me. 

(You spoke of the ether at first. Do you 
think that the atmosphere over there smelt like 
ether to you, or was it because you had ether 
about you here when you were in your last 
sickness?) 

A bit of both as I know and understand it 
now. Ether to help my body to survive there, 
and ethereal ether here to help me recover 
here. 

(Do you mean they administered ether over 
there to help you recover?) 

Exactly, and my mind became as clear as pos- 
sible and has been ever since, grand. 

(John, although you were stubborn you had 
a pretty clear mind here about many things.) 

I wasn't exactly an idiot, but I used to like 
my own way pretty well, and really did not 
want to see some things. But mother says, 
11 John, you have changed so much I cannot but 



262 PAST AND PRESENT 

feel great happiness in your wonderful prog- 
ress. " Sing any now, Anne? 

(Do you mean me, singing?) 

You used to make a noise at home I remem- 
ber. 

(Haven't you got me confused — ) 

Grace, no, you used to try, but she used to 
sing. 

(Yes, I understand.) 

Stanley says there never was any one exactly 
like Grace, and I am inclined to agree, if I did 
try to hold on to that old shingle. 

(Just what do you mean by shingle?) 

Things I would not give up. 

(Yes. John, do you want to tell me some- 
thing about what you are doing now?) 

Yes. I am not working here as I did there, 
but father and I are interested in the constitu- 
tion and conditions of the planets. Harold is 
remarkably clear about these already. 

(Well, do you know much about the planets 
there?) 

Of course we do. I know what constitutes 
what is called a star, also the satellites. / do. 
I am scientifically interested in this. 

(But how is it that when you had no special 
science here you can go ahead so fast there?) 

Because this is one of the laws of this life 



WITH MRS. PIPER 263 

and world, quite different from the material, I 
can assure you. 

(Do you have to do any special part of help- 
ing others, like work?) 

Certainly, I study and impart my knowledge 
to others in the capacity of teacher. You will 
be interested to know that I do not intend to 
be a sluggard intellectually when you arrive. 

(Would you have taken up the study of the 
planets if father had not been so interested in 
them?) 

I doubt it very much, but he is so persistent 

and is so wise in his understanding and choice 

of this work, it has opened my eyes greatly. 
....... 

(Tell me something more about what you 
do.) 

I am so interested in the working out of life 
and the conditions attendant upon it that I am 
making a profound study of it, and this is where 
the planets come in. I am studying into the 
planets. In other words, Anne, I am studying 
the planets. Got my point? 

(Yes, but do you know anything more than 
we do as to whether they are inhabited?) 

Yes, but this is a long problem which I shall 
take up later. Only I wanted you to under- 
stand me absolutely and my relative position. 



264 PAST AND PRESENT 

I thought since you knew so much about this 
life I might perhaps give you some idea about 
it for the purpose of helping you out, since I 
am here and you are there. I shall feel blessed 
indeed after talking with you and freeing my 
mind. I wanted to get everything off my mind 
so I could go on and on helping father, 
mother and Harold my son. Where are Rich- 
ard and Walter? I know they are not here, 
but in the material world. My love to them 

both. 

• •••••• 

I want Richard, and so does mother, to grow 
up to be a real man. Thank you, Anne, for 
your help and interest in him. 

(I hope you and mother both will do all you 
can to watch over and help him.) 

He needs our help and he receives it. I 
never leave him for a day. He is coming into 
his own and will be what we wish him to be. 
Now, Anne, I must be going along, and there 
are others to send a word of greeting to 
yau. 

(I am very glad you called for me, and I 
understand that you could not go on in peace 
until you had spoken to me again?) 

Exactly that. Mr. Hodgson helped me find 
you. He is a great old chap. I can tell you 
he goes about helping everybody here. I never 



WITH MRS. PIPER 265 

knew him before, only vaguely through you. 
Mother sends you her love and is glad you 
keep her in your memory. Laura also. She 
is a splendid sister to me and has helped me 
wonderfully. Also your old Hiram has a hand 
in my progress. He is very helpful here. I 
like him. . . . General is simply a man of 
power and intelligence, fully alive and working 
for you always. . . . 

(Yes.) 

Then here is H-y-p-1-o-p. 

(That is not spelled quite right, is it?) 

Something like it. 

(Is he there with you?) 

Yes, and rushing about like a duck. That 
is the best comparison I can think of. He 
wants to break through the veil. 

(Does he know this minute that you are 
speaking to me?) 

Yes, he does, and he was so attracted by 
you he had to speak, whisper only. 

(Do you mean he only whispers to you?) 

Yes. 

(Well, does he want to speak to me?) 

Yes, but he cannot yet, only whisper that all 
is well, better than he thought. 

(I am quite delighted to get even that much 
from him.) 

He has been trying for days to make me 



266 PAST AND PRESENT 

come so he could whisper his name if nothing 
more. Love and greetings, he says. 

(Give him my sincere greetings.) 

Yes, I will. So many wish to speak, but the 
light is growing dim. I will send you a mes- 
sage soon again and whenever I can catch the 
light. Speak now and say all you wish. You 
have made all right now. I thank you. John 
Rohbins. 

[The name written very large, the first name 
plain, the second not.] 

(Is that Robbins?) 

That is my name. 

(Goodbye, John. Be good and helpful.) 

Ditto, I will surely. Love to dear old Grace 
girl. 

Rector, in closing the Light, says: " Remem- 
ber life is everlasting and your friends will 
never fail to reach you on your side." 

After the pencil was dropped Mrs. Piper 
whispered to me a name, saying, " put it down 
quickly." Then to my great astonishment she 
went on uttering brief, disconnected sentences, 
in a whisper or low tone of voice, and I at once 
saw, by the appearance of her eyes and by her 
manner, that she was not conscious of what she 
was saying, or only partially so. It carried me 
back to the earlier days when she would be per- 



WITH MRS. PIPER 267 

haps twenty minutes coming out of deep trance, 
slowly gaining control of her unwieldy body, 
one of the most interesting portions of the sit- 
ting. But in these latter years I had not had 
one word of communication by voice, hence my 
surprise. These disconnected phrases do not 
seem impressive when put into cold type, but 
to the understanding sitter they are very sig- 
nificant, as confirmatory of what has just be- 
fore come in writing. A few of the fragments 
on this occasion follow : - — 

[Laughing] General reciting poetry — 
[laughing not very naturally] — he is fat and 
handsome 2s he can be — and Hiram is right 
the reverse - — and John has a way of looking 
at you just as though he was looking right 
through you — he looks like his father, doesn't 
he, and yet he looks like you — he has a very 
determined expression about his mouth, and he 
is so happy, and he is going on and on and on 
— he says, well, I settled that question once for 
all — well, Anne wasn't the fool I thought she 
was, ha ! ha ! — and this is my son Harold — 
we are a happy pair and Laura sends her love 
also — what a beautiful person she is — she 
says tell my sister Grace there is no death, and 
hold fast to it — Good-bye. 

[Looking up naturally as if coming to her- 
self] 



268 PAST AND PRESENT 

It's gone. That's all. 

(You didn't hear any snapping, did you?) 

Yes, when I said " it's gone," I heard it snap. 

Formerly, when coming out of deep trance, 
Mrs. Piper rarely if ever omitted to speak of 
this snapping in the head, almost always asking, 
" Did you hear my head snap? " as if the sitter 
ought to have heard what she heard. 

In conversation immediately after the close 
of the sitting she remarked: " You know, it is 
so much more interesting to be able to recover 
so quickly and so clearly, quite the reverse I 
think of what it used to be." When I asked 
if she remembered anything of what she had 
just been saying, she seemed quite astonished 
and said she remembered nothing. 

This last conversation with my brother in 
the spirit seems to make itself clear as it pro- 
ceeds, but a few statements in explanation or 
corroboration may properly be in place here. 

His opening remark that " a thousand didn't 
seem to compare with the happiness " seems a 
strange comparison. I did not give it much 
thought at the time, letting it pass as one of 
his peculiar expressions, and not until the fifth 
day after the sitting did it occur to me that he 
might have had in mind the thousand dollars 
which I am told was the exact amount of the 
compromise settlement for damages caused by 



WITH MRS. PIPER 269 

the accident through which he lost his life. 
But how he happened to hit upon the exact 
amount, I do not know. Such matters are 
usually the subject of much family discussion. 
Perhaps he heard the discussion in this case. 
It would be like him to make the comparison 
between a thousand dollars and heaven. 

As to the singing, he was of course right in 
saying that Grace sang, while I only tried. His 
mention of Stanley in this connection was most 
pertinent, Mr. Stanley having been a member 
of the music committee in the church in Con- 
necticut where my sister, as a member of a 
quartet, sang for a number of years; also, as 
her husband, he would quite naturally be par- 
tial to her singing. My brother himself was 
not much of a musician, but he was extremely 
fond of music. There were many impromptu 
musicales in the old home, and he enjoyed noth- 
ing better than being present when they took 
place, to hear " the girls " sing. 

In all probability the question will occur to 
many, why a person like Dr. Hyslop, a psychol- 
ogist, a scientist, many years of whose life were 
earnestly devoted to psychical research, and 
who in life was familiar with Mrs. Piper's 
mediumship, should be able only to whisper 
through a second party that all was well, bet- 
ter than he thought, while a person like my 



270 PAST AND PRESENT 

brother should so quickly appreciate his new 
situation and realize the possibility of his re- 
turn to me. I do not know. The conversa- 
tion itself partly answers the question. Dr. 
Hyslop passed away in the early summer of 
1920. He had had a long illness, of a nature 
which must have weakened him considerably. 
My brother's passing was caused by an accident, 
and there was no lingering illness. In looking 
over his effects soon after his death I discovered 
a Bible, almost new, and when I expressed sur- 
prise, some one who had been in his surround- 
ings said that what he wanted the Bible for was 
that he might discuss it in an attempt to dis- 
prove its truth. Perhaps there was a deeper- 
lying reason which the people in his surround- 
ings could not see. At any rate, while neither 
a professional nor a literary man, he did some 
thinking. Again, the occasion of this sitting 
was my brother's opportunity and not Dr. 
Hyslop's, and no doubt those on the Other Side 
who are in charge of this Light well knew that 
the rapport between communicator and sitter 
in this instance would work results which might 
spread some little additional light on the great 
problem which they are trying to help us solve. 
And after all there is plenty of evidence to 
show that the return of the so-called dead is 
not a matter either of education or of science. 



WITH MRS. PIPER 271 

The determined seeker after truth, educated or 
uneducated, marches on. Science must follow 
and explain. 

My brother's characterization of friends of 
mine on the Other Side whom he never saw in 
this life is, so far as it goes, good. Some of 
his remarks in this connection I have omitted, 
owing to their intimate nature. I forbear to 
comment on his comparison of Dr. Hyslop to a 
" duck rushing about." There will be prob- 
ably a considerable difference of opinion, among 
the intimate friends of Dr. Hyslop who may 
read these words, as to the aptness of the com- 
parison. 

As to Mrs. Piper's utterances when coming 
out of trance, or as on this occasion at the 
close of the hour of automatic writing when 
not in deep trance, she appears to be standing 
on the threshold between two worlds, to be 
slowly and reluctantly leaving a group of peo- 
ple, looking to catch last glimpses of them, list- 
ening to catch their last words, then turning 
her face to our world and repeating what she 
sees and hears, — in simple truth, a medium of 
communication between souls that are freed 
from the flesh and souls still imprisoned with- 
in it. 

The End 

November, ig20. 



INDEX 



Age in spirit world, 96, "Black people," 16 

97 Breath, going out for, 53, 

Alanson (Moore), 205, 64 

206, 236; see also Pic- Butler, Mrs., medical 



kett 
"All-seeing eye" of Im- 

perator, 140 
Alta, Miss. See Piper, 

Miss Alta 
Augustus, baby, 37, 47, 

54 
Automatic writing, first 

attempts, 8, 9 ; value of, 
22; vigilant, 159, 218, 
219; editing of, 210 
Awakening in the spirit, 
28 

Baby (Martin), 36, 47, 

54 
Baby (Plumb), 1 19-123 
Bancroft, Margaret, 159- 

174, 220, 221 
Birds in spirit world, 69 
Birthday party, test, 203- 

205 



medium, 224 

Clergymen on Other Side, 
40, 69 

Communication, process 
of described, 40-42, 75, 
109, 130; frequent, 
detrimental to spirit, 
100 

Consciousness after death, 
118 

Controls: the Phinuit, 4; 
the Hart, 6; the Rec- 
tor, 11, 13; the Mar- 
tin, 77, 80; the Mme. 
G., 195, 226; charac- 
teristics of the Hodg- 
son, 250 

Cord, ethereal, 75, 83, 
130 

Death never an accident, 
95 



273 



274 



INDEX 



Desire is realization, 69, Funeral seen by spirit, 56 

72 
Doctor, of Imperator G., Mme., control, 195, 



group, 11 
Dreams, 19, 170 



226; her special signa- 
ture, 241, 255 
"G. P. communications,'* 

E A.F poem by, 162; ^^ Martin 



letter from, 167; mes- 
sage to, 168, 169 



Gestures of hand, 23, 
239 



Ecstasy after passing out, ^ _ , 

66 ^ Gettysburg, 55 



Elements of spirit world, 

70 
Ether administered on 

Other Side, 260, 261 
Everett (Martin), 51, H ? g> I2> 22I> 222; w 



Grace. See Moore, Mrs. 
Greenacre on the Piscata- 

qua, 81-88 
Grocyn, 11 



113 



also Hart 



Everett, William (Mar- Hanscom> Qrinton M., 



tin), 37, 54 



59-62, 178, 179 



"Everlasting eye" of Im- Happiness in spirit, de- 

Perator, 91- pendent, 97 

Harold, 150-154, 176, 

Faces recognized in spirit, 207, 260 

67; celestial, 142, 143 Hart, Hiram, 5, 6, 9, 12, 

Farmer, Miss Sarah, 85 28, 45, 64 

Father, 102, 112, 243, Health, 49 

262, 263 Hiram. See Hart 
"Faunus message," 193 Hodgson, Dr. Richard, in- 
Firmament, 142, 143 troduction to Mrs. Pi- 
Flowers on Other Side, per, 5; early experi- 

68 ments, 8, 9; attitude 



INDEX 



275 



toward Imperator group, 
20, 21; death of, 19; 
message from, for Mrs. 
Piper, 20; blending of 
personalities, 125-130, 
180, 181; special mes- 
sages from, 180, 187, 
208, 233 ; prophecies 
by, 197, 218; "three 
psychic states" described 
by, 229; Phinuit found 
by, 232 ; recommends 
Holt's advice, 252; aids 
John to return, 258, 260 

Holt, Henry, 24 ; observa- 
tions on the Martin 
communications, 25, 26; 
advice of, recommended 
by Hodgson, 252 

Horton, Rev. Edward A., 

57 
Hyslop, Dr. James H., 21, 
23; death of, 270; 
"wants to break through 
the veil," 265 



Imperator, leader of spirit 
group, 1 1 ; watches sur- 
gical operation, 76; his 
"ever-lasting eye," 91; 
his "all-seeing eye," 140 



Imperator group, 1 1 ; at- 
titude of Dr. Hodgson 
toward, 20, 21; their 
special care of the 
Light, 92, 104; author- 
ity of, 91, no, 116 

Individuality retained, 42 

Interpretation of dreams, 
20, 170 

Involuntary writing. See 
automatic writing 

I. S. D. (Imperator Servus 
Dei), 219, 236, 241, 
255 



James, Professor Wil- 
liam, 5, 21, 220; com- 
munications from, 190- 
192 

John (Robbins), 238-249, 
259-266 ; character of, 
207, 245; relation to 
Richard, 207, 240, 248; 
death of, 240; message 
to Grace from, 243; 
smells ether on passing 
out, 260, 261 ; brings 
Dr. Hyslop to the 
Light, 265 

K., Mrs., medium, 164 



276 



INDEX 



Language of controls, 24 

Laura ( grandmother ) , 
120-123, 144 

Laura (sister), 120-123, 
176; death of, 102; com- 
municates clearly, in, 
112; tests from, to 
Grace, 200-205 

Letters of Mrs. Piper, 
I5S-I57, 171, 172, 188, 
256 

Light, term used for me- 
dium, 75; burning, 38, 

75, 109, 138 
Lodge, Sir Oliver, reports 

made to, 169, 173, 228; 

"Faunus message' ' for, 

193; in United States, 

252 
Longfellow, 4 
Luminosity, 72 

"Many mansions," liter- 
ally true, 96 

Martin, General Augustus 
P., official positions, 12, 
13 ; character of, 12, 13 ; 
lingering illness, 15; 
death of, 15 ; voice com- 
munications from, 22- 
144; quoting poetry na- 
tural to, 30, 78, 137; 



medium not recognized 
by, 35, 63, 83; process 
of communication de- 
scribed by, 40-42, 75, 
109, 130; characterized 
by Rector, 48; goes out 
to get breath, 53, 64; 
takes direct control, 77, 
80 ; George Pelham and, 

93, 94; his guiding 
spirit, 102, 103; refers 
to Myers, 123, 138; vi- 
olets test, 198, 199, 
220 

Material, details not 
grasped, 36 

Max (Plumb), 120 

M. B., 159-174 

Mediumship of Mrs. Pi- 
per, 4, 255 

Messages, independent, 
175-186, 194, 200, ail, 
214 

Metempsychosis, 26, 71, 

94, 143 

Moore, Mrs., 51, 132, 133, 
262; singing of "The 
Suwanee River," 134, 
135; tests for, 200-205; 
attracts spirit friends, 
205 ; messages for, from 
Alanson, 205, 236; men- 



INDEX 



277 



tal appeal responded to, 

223-226 ; return of 

Stanley to, 230, 231; 

apology from John to, 

242, 243 
Mother, 176, 177, 190, 

264, 265 
Music in spirit world, 67, 

68 
Musical instruments, 68, 

72 
Myers, F. W. H., 11, 123, 

124, 138, 193 

Names forgotten in spirit, 
52; heard by spirits, 
86 

Occupations in spirit 
world, 70-74, 141, 262, 
263 

Orin, 63, 178; see also 
Hanscom 

Pain, none in spirit, 96 
Passing out, special ex- 
periences after, 43-46, 
56, 65-70, 89, 260, 261 
"Pearly gates" real, 141 
"Pelham," George, 10, 11, 

93, 94 
Perfume, 142 



Personalities, blending of, 

125-130, 180, 181 
Phenomena, psychological, 

23 

Phinuit, Dr., early control, 
4, 5 ; early experiments 
with, 8; last conversa- 
tion with, 10; found in 
spirit world by Hodg- 
son, 232 

Photograph recognized by 
communicator, 128 

Physician, return of, 49 j 

Pickett (Moore), 144, 
206, 223, 226; see also 
Alanson 

Pictures in spirit world, 
46 

Piddington, J. G., 21 

Piper, Mr., 4 

Piper, Miss Alta, 167, 168, 
170, 172, 215; assists 
at sittings, 184, 189, 
216, 228 

Piper, Mrs., 3; develops 
mediumship, 4 ; con- 
trolled by Dr. Phinuit, 
4 ; acquaintance with 
James and Hodgson, 5; 
in England, 5, 20, 155; 
first automatic writing, 
8, 9; illness of, 10, 156; 



278 



INDEX 



controlled by Rector, 1 1 ; 
special message for, 20; 
gestures of hand, 23, 
239; controlled by Mar- 
tin, 77, 80; letters of, 

155-157, 171, 172, 188, 
256; development of 
vigilant writing, 159- 
174; poem on, 162; 
temporary return of 
deep trance, 187-193; 
controlled by Mme. G., 
195, 226; varied psychic 
states of, 229; under 
contract with S. P. R., 
255 ; enjoys normal life, 
256 
Poland Spring, 42, 112, 

113 

"Popping in" by com- 
municators, 64, 221, 
222 

Prayer of spirits, 73, 74 

Preparation for communi- 
cation, 41 

Priests, Imperator group 
called, 31, 35 

Prophecies by Imperator, 
14; by Rector, 150; by 
Hodgson, 197, 218 

Prudens, II, 76, no 



Psychic states, three, 228, 
229 

R., 243, 244; see also 
Richard 

Raymond (Lodge), 193, 
252, 253 

Records, 22, 23 

Rector, control, 1 1 ; first 
use of voice by, 13; 
style of, 13; ' 'servant 
of God," 28; opens and 
closes the Light, 48, 
in; copies gestures 
of communicator, 72 ; 
"within the shell," 75; 
instructs communicator, 
241 

R. H. See Hodgson 

Richard ( Robbins) , 207, 
240, 259, 264 

Robbins, Miss A. M., 3 ; 
attitude toward psychics, 
5 ; assists Dr. Hodgson, 
7; reports "G. P. com- 
munications," 10; rela- 
tion to Martin, 12, 13, 
15, 32; interpretation 
of dreams, 20, 170; 
watched over by Im- 
perator, 140; held to 



INDEX 



279 



responsibility by con- 
trols, 187, 188, I95> 
196, 215, 240, 241; let- 
ter from James to, 191 ; 
cannot induce the writ- 
ing, 212, 213; peculiar 
relation to John, 245, 
246 
Robbins, John. See John 

S., Mrs. See Spencer 
S., Mrs., medium, 98- 

100, 122 
Saints, Imperator group 

called, 79, 92 
Sarah (Farmer), 84, 85 
Scenery, natural, 66, 141 
"Science and a Future 

Life" (Hyslop), 23 
Scientific laws, 24 
Shell, body of medium, 75 
Sidgwick, Mrs. Henry, 21 
Signatures of controls, 219, 

236, 241, 255 
"Singing in the cherry 

tree," 200202 
Sleep, none in spirit world, 

Smith, Mrs. Hester Trav- 

ers, 26 
Soul consciousness, 118 
Spencer, Mrs., 233, 234 



Spheres, 71, 94, 143 
Spirit, the, goes out during 

sleep, 83, 88 
Spirit body transparent, 

56 

Spirit world, telepathy per- 
fected in, 25, 26, 67; 
awakening in, 28; ec- 
stasy, 66; music in, 67, 
68, 72; flowers, 68; 
elements of, sustaining, 
70; spheres, 71, 94, *43; 
objects luminiferous in, 
72; spirits do not grow 
old in, 96, 97 ; happiness 
in, somewhat dependent, 
97; pearly gates real, 
141 
Spirits, awakening of, 28; 
prayer of, 73, 74; do 
not suffer pain, 96 ; fre- 
quent communication de- 
trimental to, 100; music 
on earth heard by, 133- 
135; reproof by, 105- 
109, 223-225 
Stanley, Mr., 230, 231, 

262, 269 
Suicide, effect of, 74 
Surgical operation, 76 
"Suwanee River, The," 

134, 135 



28o 



INDEX 



Telepathy, 25, 26, 67; be- 
tween the dead and the 
living, 79, 119; incidents 
suggestive of, 183-186, 
194-196, 241 

Tests, 23, 217; special: 
name of baby, 37, 105; 
Suwanee River, 134, 
135 ; violets in home, 
198, 199, 220; singing 
in cherry tree, 200-202; 
birthday party, 203-205 ; 
"don't know anything 
except about spirits," 
241-243, 246, 247 

Thoughts sent over a line, 
41; go over wires, 80; 
in the body inspired, 57, 
58, 119 

Trance, coming out of, 
16, 131, 144, 266, 267, 
271; deep, 22, 159, 164, 
189, 229, 267; inability 



to enter, 156; temporary 
return of, 187-193 
Transparency of spirit 
body, 56 

Veil, blinding, 66 
Vibration, laws of, 79 
Visions, 142, 143 
Voice communications, 13, 

22-144 
"Voices from the Void" 

(Smith), 26 

Walter (Robbins), 264 

W. J., 190, 192 

"White people," 16 

Writing. See automatic 
writing 

Writing, vigilant, appear- 
ance of medium during, 

159, 218, 219, 239, 
266 






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